


I See The Stars At Mortal Wars

by GeminiStep



Category: Highlander: The Series, The Losers, The Losers (2010)
Genre: M/M, Minor Character Death, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-25
Updated: 2010-09-25
Packaged: 2017-10-12 04:37:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 28,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/120876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GeminiStep/pseuds/GeminiStep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jensen's been hiding a significant secret from the rest of the Losers.  Events soon force him to reveal it when an old enemy resurfaces and threatens his team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I See The Stars At Mortal Wars

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally written for tygermama over at losers_minibang on livejournal. My awesome beta was shotboxer.
> 
> I do not own The Losers, the Highlander franchise, Below, or the song Bedlam Boys, which provided the title and opening quote.
> 
> Spanish translations will be in the notes at the bottom of the story. An extended author's note with spoilers and explanations exists at insanejournal under the same pen name as above. The violence warning is mostly for the sword fight at the end of the story.
> 
> Setting is post-Losers movie and includes the first Highlander movie as well as up through season 5 of Highlander: the Series. There is also a blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference to the movie Below. I am ignoring Richie Ryan's death for the purposes of this story.
> 
> When I tried to paste this from Word the text got weird. I discovered many paragraphs missing and bullets showing up where they weren't supposed to be. If I missed something, let me know so I can fix it.
> 
> For the Highlander fans, this is mostly a Losers fic so the Highlander characters only appear in flashbacks and the epilogue. There is also a good deal more world explanation so non-Highlander fans can understand what's going on. I tried to make the exposition interesting so I hope it doesn't seem too repetative.

_I know more than Apollo,_

 _For oft when he lies sleeping_

 _I see the stars at mortal wars_

 _In the wounded welkin weeping_

 **Jensen**

 **2011 Red Hills, New Mexico**

Jensen tripped going up the steps into the Loser’s newest safe house and swore as he landed on his arm.  Pausing for a moment the hacker tried to figure out where his friends and Aisha were.  From the conversation in the front yard they were all outside for the moment.  Jensen relaxed and shifted the bags he was carrying to one hand and continued up the steps.   No one had heard him fall and therefore there would be no awkward questions about the dull cracking noise that accompanied his gracelessness.

 _Damn, it’s getting harder to keep this secret.  It’s times like these that make me glad I’m Immortal.  Waiting for this to heal naturally would suck,_ Jensen thought _.  The closer we get to Max, the more we get hurt.  It won’t be much longer before one of them notices something at the wrong moment.  It’ll probably be Aisha since she isn’t as used to this persona and it’s quirks as the others are.  Roque was right about something, that woman is as troublesome as the rest of Clay’s women._

Walking into the room he hadclaimed as his own, Jensen tossed his bags on the bed before going over to the window.  For as long as he’d been alive, he’d never gotten as blasé as some immortals about getting injured and straightening bones always hurt.  Jensen stuffed part of the shirt he was wearing into his mouth to muffle anysounds he might make and then braced his left elbow against the wall.  Drawing in a large breath of air, he aligned his broken ulna into place on the exhale.  His Quickeningwould take care of the rest of the healing.

“Jensen, there’s still bags to be unloaded so stop staring out the window.”

Jensen was proud that he didn’t jump at Clay’s voice.  Very few could actually sneak up on him.  Admittedly, it was easier to do when he wasn’t paying attention.

“Just taking a moment to appreciate that we aren’t living in a rat infested hole for once.  You know, you need to take a few minutes to appreciate simple things like that.  If you don’t, you’ll go gray faster.  How many of us really appreciate the world as it is these days—”

“Stop talking and get back to work,” Clay interrupted before continuing down the hall.

“Yes sir!” Jensen called out before turning away from the window and heading back for the stairs.

Within two hours they were set up in their new base and in place to approach their next target. 

The new mark was Mormel Securities.  The company was an international firm that specialized in some of the best digital defense systems available commercially.  Their secondary function was providing additional security personnel to enhance existing forces. Most of the legitimate clients that used them were unaware of their extracurricular activities.  The company was constantly sending personnel and equipment out to various countries.  In reality, some of these packages contained a variety of illegal drugs and weaponry. 

One of Clay’s contacts had dug up a link from the Mormel executives to Max.  Aisha confirmed that it had been representatives from the company that had initially approached her father on what were apparently Max’s orders.  With this information, Mormel moved up to the top of their investigation list.

Clay had Pooch, Cougar, and Aisha doing physical surveillance of the headquarters while Jensen had been tasked with breaking into their computer network and pulling relevant files. Unfortunately part of the system was on an internal, closed network and he needed to get manual access to those servers.

The plan was for Pooch to go in disguised as one of the office workers.  With 88 floors and over a hundred different departments, it was easy for him to blend in.  Jensen was forced to remain at his computer to bypass the security and shut down any tripped alarms.  Cougar and Aisha were in place to provide any necessary distractions, but it would be better if bullets weren’t fired.  The longer Mormel didn’t know they were being hacked, the more time the Losers had to use their private files against them.

::I’m in the server room and heading to the section Jensen indicated,:: Pooch reported.

“Good.  Once you’re in front of them there should be a USB port near the floor in the back of the tower second from the left.  Gently slide in the flash drive I gave you.  Don’t jam it.  This is all sensitive equipment and that custom USB drive you have is like my baby.” Jensen sat back in his chair, wishing he could have been the one to go in.

::Pooch, once it is in, get out of there,:: Clay instructed.  ::I don’t want you to risk getting caught.::

::The Pooch was better off driving cars, not doing this technical stuff,:: Pooch muttered over the comms, making everyone else laugh.  ::Alright, the drive has been inserted and I am leaving.  See you guys back for dinner.  We’ll pick up Chinese.::

Jensen stopped paying attention to the comms the minute Pooch was out of the building.  He concentrated on getting past the very secure firewalls of the internal network.  Even on the closed systems Mormel was paranoid about the wrong people getting in.  It would take a while, but Jensen knew he could do it.  It helped that the group had based their security systems on some programs he had developed freelance under a different identity.

Having an identity ready to go if he suddenly ‘died’ was one of the many lessons his friend Methos had taught him over the years.  Every time he forgot to have one set up Methos somehow managed to be there to mock him for his mistake.

~~~~~~~~~~~

 **Jensen**

 **1864 Arizona Territory**

Jens Becker gasped for breath as the lid of his wooden coffin was pried off.  Rubbing the dirt from his eyes he blearily stared up at his rescuer, hoping that it wasn’t a grave robber.  As it turned out it was worse, the two people standing above him were friends.

“Living in another hole I see,” Methos quipped as he gave Jens a hand up out of his grave.

“Not by choice Old Man.  What are you doing here?” Jens replied, getting to his feet.

“I went to get him for help since you were stupid enough to get yourself killed,” snapped Jessica Albrecht, Jens’ newest student.

“How was I to know that Sheriff Tanning had a habit of shooting anyone who so much as looked at his daughter?  He should be arrested for it if his deputies weren’t so afraid of him.”

“I warned you myself,” Jessica retorted.  The blonde woman was glaring at him from where she stood near a pile of his things.

Jens looked over to where his mentor was.  “Would you like a new student?  I think you two will be well matched.”

“I don’t need another student who doesn’t respect me.  One was enough.”

“I respected you; I just didn’t like having to pay off your debts.”

“Why don’t we discuss this in a more appropriate location?  And Jens, if you even think about ditching me, I will kill you myself.  When you revive from that I will punch you in the face.” With that, Jessica turned and headed back to where three horses were tied to the fence.

Jens sighed as he grabbed his bag and sword.  “Now I have to make a new identity and find a way to incorporate Jessica into it.”

“Haven’t I taught you anything?  You should always have a second identity prepared, especially with communication getting better.  I feel ashamed to call you my student,” Methos replied with mock sadness.

“Leave it, Old Man.  We better follow the lady before she attempts bodily harm on us for taking too long.”

As they followed after the blonde, Jens mentally winced.  If those two joined forces, he’d never get a break.  Jens cursed whatever deity gave him the idea to introduce his student to his friend and vowed never to do it again.

~~~~~~~~~~~

 **Jensen**

 **2011 Red Hills, New Mexico**

Jensen groaned and pushed back from the monitors in front of him.  Checking his watch he realized that he had spent the last 29 hours in the Mormel system.  There had been some rather disturbing information and at least one part of itwas going to piss Aisha off.  Clay, on the other hand, was going to be pleased about what he’d uncovered on their servers.  No matter what, he needed a break before he presented what he’d found.

Jensen stretched as he stood up, his spine popping in protest.  That was one good thing about immortality, all physical damage healed so he’d never have to worry about arthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome. 

Looking around the room he saw the disarray it was in.  The empty Chinese containers indicated that someone, probably Cougar, hadmade him eat while he was working.  The dirty clothes on the ground and the fact that he didn’t remember putting on what he was wearing told him that they’d at least made him change if they couldn’t get him into a shower.  Hislack of personal care when he got involved in something was one of the most common reasons for his friends to yell at him, right behind talking too much.  It was also the reason his older friends were astonished he hadn’t lost his head yet.

The house was quiet and Jensen wondered where everyone had gone off to.  The faint buzz of a Pre-Immortal coming from downstairs indicated that Cougar was around, if no one else.   The other man usually stuck around whenever Jensen was hacking something and Jensen thought that Clay might have ordered him to do so back when Jensen was first assigned to Clay’s unit.

Jensen grabbed a clean set of clothing and headed to the shower.  One thing about modern society that Jensen loved in addition to computers was the ready access to hot water.  Having lived in times when the only way to get clean was to haul and heat your own water or take a cold bath made him appreciate the luxury.

As the hot water cascaded down his back, Jensen’s mind went to the problem that was Cougar.  When he’d first gone into the military, Jensen intended on being in there long enough to gain some new combat training before either getting himself discharged or “dying” in combat.  He was planning on the latter when he had been sent to Special Operations and placed under Clay’s command.  It would have been simple enough to get himself killed considering he had cultivated the reputation for not always carrying a firearm when hacking and for concentrating deeply on his computers when in a “safe” location. 

Then he met Cougar.  Jensen had been shocked that a Pre-Immortal could have made it into Special Operations before dying his first death.  Usually soldiers in that field had to be revived at least once during combat due to severe injuries.  Being a sniper had him away from the main combat for the most part, keeping him safer than other members of his unit.  Still, Cougar occasionally got involved in close combat, like he had in Bolivia and in taking down Max at the Port of LA.  Dying in battle was still a legitimate option.

Jensen resolved to try to remain ‘alive’ until the other man suffered his first death and then either become his teacher or find him one that he trusted.  If Jensen died first he could at least stalk the unit as necessary.  So far they’d both done a decent job at staying alive, but a couple of other problems were starting to come up.  First, Jensen wouldn’t be able to stay with these men for too much longer.  Jacob Jensen had entered the army at twenty.  Since then he’d been active for seven years, five of which had been with the Losers.  Changing hair styles and some subtle make-up effects allowed him to appear to age accordingly, but he’d have to leave within a few years or they’d realize something was up. 

The second problem was far more personal.  Jensen had fallen in love with Cougar.  He truly hadn’t meant to since love was dangerous for his kind, but he couldn’t help it.  Before the hacker had realized what was going on he had gained the ability to read the silent man better than the rest of the unit.  Jensen had even invited him back to New Hampshire to visit with his family.  He was only able to fool himself for a little while with the excuse that he was staying near Cougar to protect him, when he simply wanted to stay near Cougar because he loved him.  Jensen refused to do anything about his feelings.  It would put Cougar further at risk because some immortals enjoyed using those their rivals cared about as hostages to force them to fight. 

He didn’t even know how Cougar felt.  To all appearances he was straight, especially with all the women he attracted.  A small amount of hacking revealed that the sniper was not opposed to males, but men weren’t a large part of his personal life.  Jessica flat out told him that Cougar was in love with him after she first met him, but she’d always been a bit of a romantic.  Jensen was sure that he was only tolerated because of being on the same team with him.

Jensen also acknowledged that Cougar might not want him to be his teacher.  Jensen had purposefully kept his fighting skills beyond hand to hand at an average level to blend in.  The others didn’t even believe that he could properly handle a blade beyond army training.  Even with an explanation and demonstration, Cougar might not trust him to teach him how to stay alive. 

If Cougar rejected him as a teacher there were very few people he’d send him to.  At this point the only others Jensen trusted were Methos, Jessica Albrecht, and Connor McLeod.  Methos was out because in his Adam Pierson persona he had become involved with Connor’s cousin Duncan and the latter had been getting challenged way too often for Jensen’s liking.  Jessica was out as well since she was pretending to be his sister and raising another Pre-Immortal as her daughter.  Neither of them was willing to risk the girl’s life by having too many Immortals concentrated together.  Connor was his best option because he might take Cougar on, if Jensen begged hard enough.

A pounding on the bathroom door shook Jensen out of his thoughts.

“Jensen, get your ass out here.  We’re planning on heading out for a while!”  Pooch shouted from the other side of the door.

“Hold your horses!  I need to get dressed.” Jensen replied.  “Doesn’t Clay want my report first?”

“No.  He and Aisha have gone out to do whatever it is they do together.  He ordered us to make sure you got sleep.  Cougar and I know how antsy you get after hacking for insane amounts of time and decided to take the extra free time to let you get the extra energy out of your system.  We’d rather not be driven mad by a hyper you and then yelled at by Clay as well when you don’t fall asleep.” ****

“Now you’re talking.  Give me a minute then we can leave.”

True to his word, Jensen got dressed in a hurry and let the other two drag him out to the nearest club.  The small town they were in was mostly full of older couples, but still had a young enough crowd to require a place for them to hang out at in the evenings.  The club was the typical dance hall and bar type with twenty-somethings trying to get drunk and score.  Jensen loved going to these places even if Cougar managed to get all the action.

For once Jensen was making some headway with a couple of girls when the tell-tale buzz of another immortal warned him that one of his own kind was nearby.  Years of training, both by experience and in the military kept him from reacting.  It wasat the very edge of his range so Jensen knew the other Immortal was not in the club yet.  He wasn’t going to cut the night short if there wasn’t a reason to.  The only Immortal he knew for sure was out to get him had last popped up two weeks ago in New York, which was half way across the country.

Unfortunately the buzz got stronger and Jensen knew he had to do something.  He didn’t want to risk a confrontation in the middle of the club.

“Hey guys, I’m going to head out,” Jensen shouted to be heard over the music.

Cougar and Pooch looked surprised at his announcement along with the four women talking with them.

“Jensen, are you feeling alright?” Pooch looked concerned.  “Usually we have to drag you from a club.”

“I’m just getting a migraine.  It happens often to people with my IQ.  Some have theorized that the smarter you are, the more your brain works.  The extra effort of thinking causes more headaches.  A quiet walk might keep it from completely forming.” Jensen rambled, knowing they would believe him about the headache at least.  The bad part of faking a headache was that the women were already ignoring him in favor of Cougar who had no reason to claim to be ill.

The migraine excuse was at least a well used one so the team truly believed he occasionally suffered from them.  He’d always managed to get away from the team whenever another Immortal was in the area and migraines were his stock escape excuse.  The unusual storms and electrical blackouts from Quickenings were unexplainable, but since his “migraines” had resulted in challenges only two times since he had been with his team they did not associate the light show with him.

Cougar just gave Jensen a penetrating look.  He tried to make his discomfort appear to come from his head, not his friend’s piercing gaze.  “I will come with you,” was all he said.

“No way, I’m a big boy and I can take care of myself.  With any luck this won’t even be a bad one.  I don’t want to deprive these beautiful women of your company since they’ll be without mine.  Stay and unwind for a bit.  I can get home on my own.”

The four women latched onto the Hispanic man in an attempt to get him to stay once they realized Jensen was definitely leaving.  Their voices took on a whining quality that Jensen knew made Cougar uncomfortable.  Pooch started to laugh at the look Cougar got from suddenly being pawed at by the tipsy women.  The partiers had been ignoring Pooch since he was clearly wearing a wedding ring and had blown off the few girls who had approached him.  Cougar was left as the only option they had for company without having to go to the effort of finding someone new to talk to. 

Seeing his opportunity to escape, Jensen slid away from his friends.  He left through the front door and headed for the nearest church.  The only weapon Jensen had was a knife strapped to his leg and he didn’t want to get challenged with that as his only defense.  He once had to fight a challenge with a knife against an opponent’s claymore and although he won, it wasn’t an experience he wanted to repeat.

As he moved away from the club the buzz remained at a constant level, indicating that the unknown immortal was following.  It only took a minute to pick the lock on one of the church doors and head to the Sanctuary.  Jensen slid into one of the pews and waited.   Before long the quiet sound of the door opening behind him let him know that he was about to meet the other immortal 

“You were not what I was expecting, young man.”  A voice cracked with age echoed in the hall.

Jensen turned around to see a Hispanic woman well into her sixties standing in the isle at the back of the church.  It was rare to meet an Immortal that had a first death after fifty-five and survived in the game.  To a casual observer she could have been anyone’s grandmother, but to another Immortal she was anything but that.  The sleeves of her shirt draped on her arms just enough to indicate that there were strong muscles underneath them.  She also carried herself with the self confidence of a seasoned warrior.  As she slowly approached, Jensen blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“How the hell did you get into that club?  I mean you really don’t look the type to be into that sort of party.  Not that I’m judging by appearance considering what we are, but I seriously can’t imagine that you’d be able to go in there without causing some sort of scene.”  Jensen paused for breath as the elderly woman sat down next to him.

“The people here know I am different.  Before you get upset, they don’t know exactly what I am, but they know enough to leave me be and accept my actions.  Superstition helped with that.  And you should not swear in a church.”

“Why were you following me?  I wasn’t causing trouble.”

“There was another of our kind here recently and he killed several people over at that security company before disappearing.  I wanted to ensure that you were not that man.”

The steel in her voice let Jensen know exactly what she would do if he had been the other immortal, or if he tried to do something similar.

“I promise that the only reason I am here is to get information to take down a man that has been responsible for a large, but unknown number of deaths.   The deaths include twenty-five innocent children that we know about for sure.  Other than that, I am here in peace and desire to leave in peace.”

The white haired woman nodded, clearly satisfied.  She got up to leave, but paused and turned around.  She returned to the pew and pulled out a sheet of paper, rapidly sketching out something.

“Here is the man that murdered people in my city.” She paused to hand him the drawing.

Jensen froze as he looked at the picture before him.  He knew he’d have to deal with this man, but had been hoping to put it off for a while longer.  At least until Max was finished.

“You know this man.  I can tell from your expression.  Be wary of him for I think he might be close to becoming a headhunter.  His aura was too dark for my comfort. “

“I can handle him.  I’m not new to this life,” Jensen assured the woman.

“I can tell you have an old soul despite your youth.  Take care young man and return in peace when your friend has become one of us.  The entire town was built on ancient holy land and that protection is still active.”

At those parting words the old woman stood and walked out of the hall.  Jensen followed after a few minutes.  He made sure that the door was locked when he left and that there was no obvious evidence that anyone had visited. 

Heading back to the safe house, he contemplated the sketch he’d left in the trash back at the church.  Clearly the facial recognition programs failed to pick the man up if he had left New York and had been in town recently.  There was a good chance he was still after the Losers and now he had a good reason for a grudge against them.  For his entire team’s safety Jensen had to figure out Wade’s location and take his head.

~~~~~~~~~~~

 **Cougar**

 **Half Hour Earlier**

Cougar looked over at Pooch, caught his eye, and tipped his head in the direction Jensen had just gone.  Pooch gave a small nod to indicate he understood what Cougar wanted. 

“Ladies,” Pooch said loudly enough to get all of their attentions.  Once Pooch had the focus of the women, he launched into a story of some of their more amusing mishaps outside of the army.  As soon as no one was looking Cougar slid into the crowd and followed after the hacker.  This was a routine the pair hadworked out for every time Jensen wandered off by himself. 

For some reason Cougar had been assigned to beJensen’s keeper back when the younger man had first been assigned to their unit.  Clay had developed some convoluted theory that Cougar’s muteness and Jensen’s nonstop rambling might even each other out.  It also could have been that Cougar was the least likely to shoot him out of annoyance. 

Cougar soon got used to the near constant chatter, often choosing to room with the other man when they had to share and allow the rest of the unit a break from him.  Listening to Jensen, especially when they weren’t on a job, was always interesting.  The hacker seemed to view the world slightly differently than anyone else he’d known and it fascinated him.  The hacker was a peculiar mix of innocence and cynicism with a healthy dose of paranoia thrown in. 

After several months of deliberately choosing to sit in the same room that Jensen was in and volunteering to share a room with him, Cougar finally admitted to himself that he was more than just intrigued by him.  This startled him because he hadn’t fallen in love with another person in years.  It had been even longer than that since his focus had been on a man. 

To an outside observer Jensen was all wrong for him.  He was too much in the same places Cougar was not enough, but that didn’t bother him.  Cougar had found that Jensen had an amusing sense of humor and could make surprisingly accurate observations about something that Cougar had thought he’d been looking at unobtrusively.  The hacker also tailored his ramblings to fit the people he was with.  He seemed to be able to pick up on subjects that were really uncomfortable or had bad memories for someone else and avoid bringing them up unless absolutely necessary.  Even when a third person broached the subject, Jensen managed to steer the conversation away without making it look deliberate.

After a while Cougar came to view the hacker as a good friend, something he was rarely able to find.  One night he caught himself wondering if he could shut Jensen up by kissing him and realized that what he was feeling was love.  He didn’t think Jensen returned his feelings so he kept his distance for a while in an attempt to force his emotions away.  All that resulted was Cougar feeling lonely despite being surrounded by his unit and Jensen talking less while wearing a look of confused hurt when he thought no one was watching.  Clay finally told him to work out whatever happened between thembecause his behavior was messing up the group dynamic. 

At that point Cougar accepted that although he loved Jensen it would most likely end up being unrequited.  He resolved to protect the younger man as much as he was able.  He let things go back to normal between them and kept a closer eye on the hacker.  If seeing the large smile and cheerful demeanor return happened to make him feel better as well, no one else needed to know.

The resolution to protect Jensen no matter what, wasat best difficult to keep.  Jensen had about a fifty-fifty chance of talking too much at the wrong time or he’d get caught when going in to hack a closed network.  He always tried to pick off those aiming at Jensen, but occasionally couldn’t get a shot before their targets harmed him.  Cougar was thankful that Jensen had yet to die considering how often he was shot at.

During down time, keeping his friend somewhat safe was a challenge as well.  He was the one Jensen tended to hang out with in bars since Pooch was married and uninterested in women,  Roque scared all but the most adventuresome women off, and Clay attracted the unstable ones.   Cougar could easily get most women in bed with him, but he wasn’t that into casual sex.  Jensen wasn’t that smooth so Cougar didn’t have to worry about him going off on his own with strangers all that often.  The few times he was able to score with a girl, Cougar could usually go with one of her friends so he’d be in the area if something went wrong.  If Cougar occasionally stole women from the hacker because of jealousy, his friend never suspected the cause and just forgave him with a laugh.

Then there were times like tonight.  Jensen occasionally claimed to have a bad headache and needed to walk it off.  He never seemed to get one while he was working multiday hacks or when they were actually carrying out the last stages of an operation.  The migraines seemed to form when he was out in the city or, rarely, when they were waiting in a somewhat isolated location. 

Clay ordered Cougar and Pooch to keep an eye on Jensen in case trouble happened while he was out walking.  This was because after the second time an unexplained, localized electrical storm occurred in their area Jensen had come back with ripped clothes.  There were no power lines or exploding transformers to explain the weather since the team was in an isolated part of the jungle and it was clear Jensen was lying about how his clothes got into the state they were in.  He claimed he hit the jungle floor when the storm began and ended up tearing his clothes on the way down.  The only problem had been that the tears looked more like slashes than rips.

Jensen hadstuck to his story when theyquestioned him further so all Clay could do was privately tell the other two to keep an eye on him to keep him safe.  Pooch hadfelt Cougar would have an easier time following Jensen so it was decided that Pooch would be the one to distract those around them to allow Cougar to sneak off after their friend. 

When Cougar noticed Jensen tense slightly, he knew a migraine was forming.  Over the years he’d picked up on that particular tell.  As Cougar predicted, Jensen soon extracted himself from the girls and slipped off towards the front door.  Pooch quickly gave him an opening to leave so he could track the hacker.

Cougar stayed a discrete distance from his friend.  He’d had plenty of practice at following Jensen and it was easy to remain in the shadows while still within sight of him.  Almost unconsciously Cougar kept track of anyone near them.  There were others out this late, but most of them were obviously on their way to the club or a party.  The only person that stood out was an old woman who appeared to be going the same direction as them.  It was strange to see someone that age in an area that was mostly for teensand twenty-year-olds, but she probably had a good reason to be there.  It wasn’t his business.

Despite claiming that he was just going for a walk Jensen appeared to be headed to a specific place.  His steps were direct and he wasn’t looking around aimlessly like he would if he had nothing to do.  To Cougar’s surprise the hacker walked up to the side door of the nearest church.  He hid in a corner as he watched Jensen take a quick look around, before picking the lock on the door and going in.  Cougar also glanced around and was relieved to see that there seemed to be no one out at the moment to witness his friend’s actions.  Suddenly the old woman Cougar had noted earlier moved out from around a corner and also entered through the door Jensen had just gone through.

 _The old woman is going to call the police when she finds him_ , Cougar thought as he headed towards the church.  _I’d better try to help him out of the situation before that happens_.

After making sure that there still weren’t any witnesses, Cougar entered the church as well, automatically removing his hat.  Hearing the sound of voices from the Sanctuary he headed in that direction.  He was surprised to see that Jensen and the woman were sitting next to each other just talking. 

Cougar chose to remain in the doorway where he couldn’t be seen and listen for the moment.  He’d only reveal himself if the situation appeared to be going wrong.  Neither of them seemed upset at the moment and he mentally chuckled as he heard the woman admonish Jensen for swearing in a church. 

The conversation began to worry him as it continued.  The Hispanic woman said that someone like them had been involved in the recent Mormel murders.  The way she stated that information made Cougar nervous although he wasn’t sure why it would.  It wasn’t the veiled threat in her tone since that wasn’t yet directed at Jensen.  It was the statement that Jensen and the woman were of a “kind” and that they were similar to the murderer.  The hacker’s reply was odder.  Cougar bit his tongue to keep from revealing himself as Jensen openly told a stranger why he was in town.  Apparently it was the right response because the last bit of tension in the woman was released. 

Cougar started to retreat from view when the woman stood, but returned to his earlier position as she sank back into the pew.  There was enough lighting in the room for Cougar to see Jensen’s face pale as he looked at a drawing the woman made for him.  Cougar concluded that she’d drawn a picture of the murderer, but the phrasing of her words intrigued him.  The meaning of ‘headhunter’ was rather unmistakable, but the person who had murdered the Mormel personnel had shot them, not taken their heads.

Cougar backed away from the door as soon as the woman mentioned something about bringing Jensen’s friend with him.  If she had seen him then he needed to find a place to hide until they left so Jensen didn’t know he’d been followed.  Just as he exited to the street, a hand grabbed his shoulder in a surprisingly strong grip.

He tensed at the touch but the Hispanic woman only linked her arm with his before leading him away from the church.  To all viewers, the scene would appear as though he were walking with his aged mother.  Removing his arm from hers would bring more attention to them than he wanted so he acted out of habit and waited to see why she hadwaylaid him.

“Estuviste con el hombre en la iglesia,” she stated softly.

“Sí,” Cougar replied, despite the fact that it wasn’t a question.

She stopped moving and he turned to face her.  Looking directly into his eyes, she seemed to take themeasure of him before speaking.

“Confíe en lo que te diga y en lo que te enseñe.” the old woman cautioned him. “Él tiene mucha sabiduría a pesar de su comportamiento.”

Cougar stared at her in confusion and she laughed softly at his expression.  Letting go of his arm with a pat, she moved away from him.

“Comprenderás cuando llegue el tiempo.  Cuide de él y ámelo **.”** were her last words to him as she left him on the street.

Cougar continued back to the safe house, deciding not to tell the rest of the team what had happened that evening.  It was too strange to accurately describe and the events did not appear to endanger them.

~~~~~~~~~~~

 **Jensen**

Pooch and Cougar were already back by the time he arrived at the house.  Jensen could hear Pooch talking upstairs and Cougar’s faint buzz emanated from up there as well.  Jensen hurried up the steps in order to run the security footage for both New York and California airports throughsome of his programs. 

Just as he sat in front of the row of monitors on his desk Cougar’s hand came down on his shoulder.  He pulled Jensen away from the desk and pushed him towards his bed.

“Cougar, I need to look into something,”

Cougar simply glared at him.  Jensen caught a look of concern underneath it and realized why he was being interrupted.

“I’ll be fine without sleep for a while longer. Trust me on this.”

The creak of the floor in the hallway caused Jensen to turn towards the door just as Pooch stuck his head in the room.

“Is he trying to get back on the computers?” Pooch asked Cougar.

“Sí,” he replied, increasing his glare.

“Come on guys.  I have some things I need to look into.  If this is about me getting rest you don’t need to worry about it.  I’m like the Energizer Bunny.  I can keep going and going and going.  I’ll be perfectly alright,” Jensen couldn’t keep the slight whine out of his voice.  He actually was tired, but he didn’t think he could sleep without figuring out where Wade was.

“No can do.  Clay gave specific instructions that you were to sleep for at least six hours.  I refuse to be reprimanded by Clay if you don’t get rest.  So change out of those clothes young man and hop into bed.  Lights out in ten,” Pooch ordered.

“You really have the ‘Dad Voice’ down Pooch.  I bet your kids will be the best behaved on the block between you and Jolene.  I, on the other hand, don’t need to be babied.  I know what I’m doing.”

“Idiota obstinado,” muttered Cougar.

“Jensen, if you are tired you might miss something that you would have caught if you were more awake.   Just get the rest.  Think about how much faster you’ll work when you’re more alert.”

Jensen could tell that they were not going to give up.  While he’d been arguing with Pooch, Cougar had turned off his monitors and planted himself between them and Jensen.  Pooch had his arms crossed and looked like he might actually just knock Jensen out to get him to comply.  Pooch did have a point about missing something when tired.  That was probably how Wade had gotten by his surveillance the first time. 

“Alright.  Clay can get quite scary when his orders aren’t followed.”

Pooch snorted and left the room as Jensen pulled out a pair of clean boxers from his pack and headed to the bathroom to get ready for bed.  By the time Jensen had finished in the bathroom Cougar had taken up a position by the window.  Jensen assumed this was their way of ensuring he wouldn’t get on his computers the minute they were out of sight.  This wasn’t the first time Cougar had taken watch as he went to sleep and it always made him feel safer for some reason.

“Thanks, Cougs,” Jensen said softly as he lay down on the bed.

“De nada,” Cougar replied as Jensen closed his eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Jensen really did feel better once he woke up, but he wasn’t going to admit that out loud.  When Cougar saw that Jensen was awake he tipped his hat and left the room.  Jensen was touched that he’d apparently stayed the night, and probably would have been creeped out as well were he not used to it by now. 

As soon as Cougar was gone Jensen slid into the chair in front of his computers, turned on the monitors, and called up his facial recognition programs as well as the local news sites.  After a few minutes he was able to determine that the murders had taken place three weeks before they arrived in town.  Unfortunately many airports used closed circuit security systems and Jensen didn’t have a plausible reason to visit any of the nearby ones to manually retrieve the footage. 

Jensen got up and closed his bedroom door.  He was taking a risk accessing the database he was about to go into, but he really needed the information.  Calling up a hidden program, he entered a twenty-eight character password to activate the backdoor to the Watcher Database. 

Methos and he’d had a good laugh after ‘Adam Pierson’ recommended ‘Timothy Jacobs’ to set up a digital database for the Watchers to use.  It made keeping track of Immortals easier for the Watchers if they could submit digital reports on top of the paper ones, as well as to gather information on Immortals involved in challenges as they occurred.   It was lucky for the pair that even the newest Watchers were uncomfortable with computers and an outside expert was needed.  A backdoor was simple enough for Jensen to add in and hide deep in the code.  He still couldn’t believe that they’d told him the database was for recording and collating the movements of various migratory animals.  It was both true and insulting.

Now he was using the backdoor to see if a Watcher had been able to follow ‘Wade’ after the LA Port fiasco.  The last thing the Watcher, who’d been disguised as security, had known was that several severely burned bodies were sent to the county morgue.  With so many corpses coming in, the number of burn DOAskept changing.  The Watcher knew that Wade was still alive since there hadn’t been a Quickening, but he’d lost track of the other man.  No other Watcher had spotted him near their charges so there was not a lot they could do to find him.

 _Damn it._   Jensen swore in his head _.  For once I wish the Watchers were useful for something other than risking the lives of those they were supposed to “benignly” watch.  They’re like the world’s largest voyeur community.  Couldn’t they manage to track one psychotic killer?  For their centuries of experience, they really should be better at their job.  Maybe I ought to call Methos.  No, the Old Man would simply tell me to ditch my unit and activate another identity.  I’ll send Jessica a note about the situation so she’ll be prepared if he shows up in New Hampshire_.

Once the note was sent to his ‘sister’, Jensen took another look around the database.  There was no record of the old woman he’d met the other night.  In fact, the entire southwest was pretty quiet in terms of Immortal activity.  Jensen breathed a sigh of relief at that.  He had been concerned that a Watcher might have seen him talking to the woman and reported him to the rest.

A knock originating from the hall pulled his attention away from the database.

“Jensen, meeting in fifteen,” Clay barked from behind the door, “and you better come down wearing more than your boxers and a hat.”

“Got it.  This is a fully dressed meeting.  I’ll be down with a hop and a skip.”

Clay’s footsteps moved away from the door as Jensen prepared for the meeting.  He logged out of the Watcher database then transferred the files on Mormel Securities to his main laptop.  Quickly pulling on a pair of jeans and one of his novelty shirts he headed downstairs.

The others were gathered in the living room when he entered.  Snagging the seat next to Cougar, Jensen turned his attention to Clay.

“Aisha and I met up with one of her contacts last night and he told us that Mormel is moving something important from the San Francisco Port to their local branch.  The recent murders of employees at several southern branches seem to have put them on a high enough alert to make the move earlier than originally planned.”  Clay paused to glower.  Jensen assumed it was from the vague information they had attained. 

“Security will be easiest to take care of at the Port, rather than try to take the convoy en route.” Aisha took over the report from Clay.  “The guards will be more scattered and will be easier to distract that way.”

“Jensen, what were you able to find out?”  Clay demanded, taking back control of the conversation.

“Mormel Securities has been a bad, bad company.  As we know, they’ve been importing drugs from South America and Asia.  Once the drugs reach their warehouses, they’re further processed before some of the drugs are exported to other countries and the rest are distributed in America.  All of the money is filtered through the company as miscellaneous service charges and comes out clean.  There have been monthly payouts of the illegal profits to a group of private accounts in various countries, at least two of which appear to be connected to Max.”

Jensen paused before turning his computer toward the rest of the room and initiating the slideshow he had set up.  “What you guys are looking at is the side project Mormel has going on.  The drugs that they sell in America always go to rival gangs, to whom they also supply weapons.  Mormel appears to be the source of several of the nastier gang wars based around drug and weapon sales that have occurred across the US.  From what I can tell, they are trying to destabilize and eventually take down the most powerful gangs in the country by getting them to kill each other. 

“You might be thinking that that is an inventive and effective solution: getting the gangs to take out each other.  The problem is that the conflicts Mormel has started have led to the deaths of over a hundred innocents this year alone, and it isn’t even half way over.”  

Jensen clicked on another slide show.  “What they are moving early is the latest inbound shipment of cocaine from various South American countries.  With someone besides us taking out their people, they’ve spooked and decided to secure as much of their inventory as they can in the more heavily guarded offices than in the less secure Port.  The containers of cocaine are marked as surplus security drives and uniforms.”  Jensen concluded his report and turned his computer back around.

Clay turned to face the rest of the Losers.  “Our best option right now is to get to San Francisco and run surveillance on the Mormel cargo containers.  Jensen, keep track of their plans.  I want to know the minute the contents of those containers are going to be moved.  Pack up everything.  We head out tonight.”

With that Clay headed upstairs to pack, leaving the rest of the Losers to do the same.  Jensen couldn’t help but feel anxious about dealing with Max in yet another Californian port.

~~~~~~~~~~~

 **Jensen**

 **2011 San Francisco, California**

Jensen silently crept along the wall of shipping containers.  The goal for the night was to set up a series of cameras to record activity in the areas of the shipyardMormel had inventory stored.  Jensen was tasked with getting the cameras in place while Cougar got to a good vantage point to keep an eye on the security personnel’smovements.  Pooch was near the entrance they snuck in through with the van ready to go in case they were spotted.  Aisha and Clay were scouting around for good places to set up an ambush for when they took out the Mormel forces.  They also had the job of creating a distraction if one of the other three got into trouble.

Five of the seven cameras were set up and running.  Jensen would have liked to set up more, but there weren’t that many places to hide them.  He was going to have to make do with the low quality images the port security cameras produced to support the ones from the carmeras he was installing.  He was on his way to place the last two when the buzz of another Immortal caught his attention.

 _Oh that’s just peachy.  It figures this would happen._ Jensen grumbled in his head.  _I never have good luck when it comes to having a secret life.  I can’t think of anything that I’ve done to get such bad karma.  On top of that the only bladed weapon on me is my army knife.  If Jessica were here she’d say I deserved to get my head chopped off for not being prepared.  Maybe the other Immortal will be just as unwilling to fight as I am._

“Guys, I think I might have company soon,” Jensen reported over the radio.

::What the hell do you mean you might have company?:: Clay demanded.

“Let’s just say I’ve got a really bad feeling right now.”

::I see no one,:: Cougar informed them.

That did not actually make him feel any better.  He knew one of his kind was there and if they were good enough to avoid being spotted by Cougar, then he might really have a fight on his hands.  It also meant that there wasn’t a Watcher in the area.  Those people sucked at sneaking around and would easily have been spotted by the sniper.  A challenge would bring the team in and he had no idea if his mystery guest would attack mortals.

::Now is not the time to be turning into a girl, Jensen, ::Pooch added in.  ::No offense, Aisha. ::

::None taken.  What makes you think there’s a problem? :: Aisha clearly sounded annoyed even over the radio.

Jensen could see the shape of a large man in the shadows of one of the containers. 

“Probably because there’s someone standing in the shadows ahead of me.”

::View’s blocked, moving position,:: Cougar informed the group.

It was time to find out who was following him so Jensen did what he could do best: talk.

“You might was well come out.  I know you’re there and you know I’m here so we can skip the skulking in theshadows bit.  That really becomes tiresome after a while, don’t you think?  I mean really, our kind spends way too much time lurking around.  You think there would be a better way to do things.  Anyway, I really don’t want trouble tonight so why don’t you go your way and I’ll finish my business and we can both see another day.” As he rambled he could hear the team swearing at him for revealing himself. 

“You still haven’t learned how to shut up, have you.”  Wade stated as he stepped out of the shadows.

::Es imposible. :: Cougar breathed in shock over the comm. 

Jensen assumed the sniper finally saw his stalker.  Cougar’s comment elicited a chorus of variations on‘What the hell’s happening’, but Jensen blocked them out for now.  His team really couldn’t help him at the moment.

“Damn it,” Jensen griped. “I really wish our early warning systems came with caller ID.  It’d be very nice to know if you are about to run into a friend or deal with a jerk.  I’d truly liked to have known you’d be here tonight so that I could have scheduled my work for another time.  Don’t you get sick of running into me in ports?  We’ve met in Liverpool, Penzance, New York, Cape Town, Kobe, L.A., and now San Francisco—“

“Shut up!” Wade snapped at him.  “You’d think that in five hundred years you’d have learned how to be quiet.  I’m surprised the others haven’t killed you yet.”

::Jensen, get out of there. :: Clay ordered over the comm.  ::We’re on our way, but it’ll take a minute. ::

“They love me.  My conversations enrich their world.” Jensen continued, ignoring Clay’s command.  He hoped that Wade didn’t realize the others knew he was there.  “I would say it’s been nice seeing you again, but I promised Jessica I would try to stop lying.  So just go away and bother someone else.”

Chuckling lowly, Wade pulled out a semi-automatic gun and pointed it at Jensen, prompting him to step back a few paces.

“Hey, wait a minute.  There’s no need for violence.  It’s a pleasant night and blood will just spoil the mood.  I’ll just be on my way, unless you’re challenging me.”

“I’m not going to waste my time challenging you.  I can assume that the rest of your Losers know I’m here and are on their way so this is how things are going to play out.  I’m going to shoot you in the head, and then I will shoot your friends as they get here.  The shots won’t do more than incapacitate them so you can watch as I execute them in front of you when you revive.  I’m going to start with al-Fadhil’s daughter and end with Alvarez.“  Wade grinned nastily at him. 

“Once I take Alvarez’s head I’ll take yours, then I’ll take a trip to New Hampshire and visit your student and her daughter.  I wonder how little Melanie will react to seeing her mother die in front of her.”

“You monster,” Jensen snarled at Wade.  “I won’t let you touch a hair on her head.”

“You don’t have a choice.”  With those words he pulled the trigger. 

Wade was only able to fire his gun for a second, but it was long enough for four bullets to rip into Jensen as he dove out of the way.  From where he landed, he could see Wade bleeding on the ground as well. 

 _Nice one, Cougar_.

As he lay coughing up blood, Jensen realized that his secret was going to be revealed to his team.  From the way his chest felt, at least one bullethad punctured a lung.  Another one haddefinitely grazed his neck, but since he wasn’t already dead it must have missed the arteries.  From years of experience, Jensen knew the wound in his chest was going to cause him to bleed out before they could get him to the hospital.

 The sound of running feet alerted him to the fact that he was no longer alone.  He only hoped that it was his team, rather than any ofthe port workers.  Turning his head towards the footsteps, he watched as Clay and Aisha appeared from around a wall of containers.   They split apart with Clay heading directly for Jensen and Aisha going to ensure that the other man was dead.

“Hold on kid,” Clay said as he got to Jensen’s side.  “We’ll get you to the hospital and once you’re better I’ll kick your ass for this.  Afterwards you’ll explain why the hell you didn’t retreat like I ordered you to.”

Without even warning him, Clay pulled off his shirt and used it to put pressure on his chest wound.  Only force of will kept Jensen from crying out in pain.  Both Wade and Cougar had used a silencer so his screaming would be the most likely way for port security to be alerted to their location.

Aisha got to his side the same time Cougar arrived.  Jensen ignored Clay informing Pooch to have the van ready to move and that they were on their way in favor of focusing on Cougar kneeling by his head.

“No te atrevas a morir.  No podría agauntarlo,” Cougar said roughly.

“Don’t think I have much of a choice, Cougs.” Jensen replied as he coughed up more blood. 

Cougar’s eyes widened briefly at Jensen understanding his Spanish.  Jensen figured that he might as well stop playing dumb about languages now that he’d have to tell them everything.

He didn’t have a chance to say anything else as Clay used his belt to tie the shirt in place over his chest.  Then Cougar and he lifted Jensen up and put his arms around their necks.  They carried him to where Pooch was waiting while Aisha covered their retreat.  For once their luck held out and no one noticed them as they left.

At the van, Pooch already had several of the seats collapsed so that they could keep Jensen prone as well as their medical kit open on one of the seats.  Aisha grabbed several bandages in order to put pressure on the remaining wounds.  Clay was up front with Pooch figuring out the quickest way to the hospital as well as a cover story to explain his wounds.

Cougar remained by Jensen’s side, which actually comforted him, despite knowing that he was going to come back.  Using his left hand Cougar kept pressure on his chest while his right held onto Jensen’s hand.

“Cougar, promise me—” Jensen started to say as his vision blackened.

“Cualquier cosa,” he whispered and Jensen felt him clutch his hand harder.

“No matter what, take all the bullets out of me.  Promise me that.”

“Prometo,” Cougar swore.

Jensen knew his friend would keep his promise and allowed himself to fall into death.

~~~~~~~~~~~

 **Cougar**

Cougar sat in the kitchen of their safe house in San Francisco.  He was alone and from the noises the other four, no _three_ , were in the living room.  Sitting innocently in front of him were three used bullets, the ones he’d removed from the body.  Cougar found that he couldn’t think of the corpse in the basement as Jensen. 

Clay had made the decision not to go to the hospital after Jensen hadpassed away in the van.  The hacker hadlost too much blood and they were too far away from the ER to get his body there in time.  The best option had been to return to their safe house and regroup to decide their next steps.   They didn’t have anyone to go after this time.  The man who’d done the actual shooting was already dead, although Cougar didn’t feel satisfied that the man haddied so quickly.

The simmering anger that had formed since Bolivia was gone.  All he felt was an aching emptiness inside.  When he hadacknowledged his feelings for Jensen, he’d assumed that he would always be there to protect him and that he would die before Jensen.  He hadn’t even subconsciously entertained the notion that the hacker would go first.  Closing his eyes, Cougar fisted his hands as he felt despair wash over him.  Not even after the deaths of those twenty-five Bolivian children had he felt this hopeless.

A hand covered his clenched fists, and Cougar opened his eyes to see Aisha sitting across from him. 

She didn’t say anything but he was able to understand her.  She gazed back at him, not in pity but in sympathy.

 After she had shot Jensen Cougar would have had no problems killing her himself, but once she saved their lives he’d thawed a bit towards her.  Jensen had welcomed her to the team with open arms, ignoring the fact that she had shot him only days before.  Sometimes Cougar was surprised at the other man’s ability to forgive.  It was a rare trait in their line of work.

The sympathy was understandable.  Aisha knew what it was like to lose someone she loved; it was the reason she was fighting alongside them.  She had cared for her father very much, despite what he did for a living. 

“You loved him,” Aisha stated, finally breaking the silence.

Cougar only nodded slightly in response.  He couldn’t bring himself to speak since he had made that promise to Jensen.

“I won’t say anything trite because it never helps and we aren’t the type to accept comfort anyway.” Aisha stared at him with a determined expression.  “I will pledge you this though.  We will get Max.  The man who murdered Jensen was one of his main enforcers and therefore Max is solely to blame for this.”

Cougar didn’t react, but after a minute more of looking at him, she seemed satisfied with what she perceived.

“Here,” she said as she pulled two cloth bags out of her pocket.  From the larger one she withdrew Jensen’s glasses.  “I cleaned them for you.” 

She slid both the bag and the glasses across the table to him.  Opening up the smaller bag, she carefully placed the three bullets into it before closing it back up.  Cougar nodded his head in understanding.  She carried with her a ring that had once belonged to her father as a reminder of him.  The glasses and the bullets were to be Cougar’s keepsake.

A clearing of the throat caught the pair’s attention.  Pooch was standing, subdued, in the doorway.

“Clay wants to discuss what we’re going to do now,” he said before turning back to the other room.

Standing up, Cougar followed him to the living room with Aisha followingbehind him.  Clay was leaning back against the bare wall across from one of the sofas and Cougar took a moment to observe him.  He looked as lost as he had when Max had those children murdered and he looked far older than he should. 

When everyone had taken a seat Clay began.

“I wanted to let you know that one of my contacts was able to arrange for a grave for Jensen.”  Clay held up his hand, probably to forestall any interruptions.  “I refuse to allow him to be buried a John Doe and this way we’ll be able to bypass the county coroner’s office.”

“What aren’t you telling us?” Pooch asked.

“We won’t be able to bury him under his own name.  The open plot was already registered and paid for except that the body never made it to the mortuary.” Clay paused for a minute before continuing.   “Apparently the family changed its mind and had the body cremated at the last minute.  The grave was dug before the cemetery was informed so the disturbed earth won’t be a problem.  The guy’s ashes ended up in an urn attached to the side of the headstone.”

“Why can’t we take his body to New Hampshire?”  Pooch asked.

“Do you have any idea the difficulty of transporting a body illegally across the United States?  We’d either have to appropriate a refrigerated truck or find some other way to move him.  Once we reach his sister, we’d still have the problem of burying him.”

“I guess you’re right,” Pooch mumbled.  “We are going to tell his sister the location, aren’t we?”

Clay looked troubled at that.  Cougar assumed it was from thinking of the formidable woman Jessica Jensen was.  She had not reacted well when she found out they were alive.  She had spent an entire hour lecturing them on the fact that they should have let both her and Jolene know that they’d survived.  For a civilian, Jensen’s sister was one of the scarier women he’d ever met.

It churned in his gut thinking of the hacker’s relatives as well.  Before they’d left to continue to search for Max Jensen’s niece Melanie had cornered him and asked him to keep an eye on Jensen.  Cougar promised the nine-year-old that he would do his best to protect the hacker.  How was he going to explain that her uncle was dead because he hadfailed at watching over him? 

The sniper pulled his hat down lower to keep the others from seeing his expression before pulling his thoughts off of the Jensen family and back onto the conversation.

“On to another matter,” Clay said.  “We need to find out who that man was and how he knew where we were going to be.”

Aisha pushed off the wall and faced Clay.  “I had the opportunity to see him before we got Jensen ready to move and I recognized him.”

“Who was he?” Clay asked, interrupting her.

“There’s actually a problem with who I saw,” Aisha carried on as if Clay hadn’t said anything.  “He’s someone you told me you guys killed at the Port of Los Angeles.  It was Wade, Max’s right hand man.”

“What the hell?  This isn’t a joke!” Pooch yelled at Aisha.

“That’s impossible,” Clay added, glaring at her.  “I watched as he was launched over my head into the plane right before it exploded.  There was no way for him to have survived.  The man at the port’s head must have been distorted by the gun shot making him appear similar to Wade.”

“Clay, I know who I saw,” Aisha insisted, glaring right back at him.

As the other two began to argue with her, Cougar had an internal debate.  He had also watched as Wade hit the plane at the harbor and everything he knew about the world was telling him that he was dead.  The only problem was that Cougar had also seen the man who was holding a gun on Jensen and at the time he hadn’t been shot in the head.  The men at both Ports looked identical and they all heard Jensen’s side of the conversation.  He clearly knew his killer, despite not saying his name.

“It was Wade,” Cougar confirmed.

At his words the other three turned to look at him.  Clay and Pooch wore matching expressions of disbelief while Aisha was shocked that he was backing up her claim.

“Cougs, man, Wade is dead,” Pooch reminded him.

“Ihim saw clearly through the scope; itwas Wade,” he persisted.

“You were the one to shoot his motorcycle,” Clay reminded him.  “There is no way that he could have survived.”

“Actually they’re right,” came a hauntingly familiar voice from the doorway.  “It was Wade and we have a serious problem.”

All four of them turned to look at the source of the voice.  Leaning against the doorframe that led to the hallway was Jensen.  He was rigid with tension and looked both extremely nervous and extremely sheepish at the same time.  Cougar couldn’t think beyond the fact that Jensen, who had died in front of him hours earlier, was standing there whole and alive.

~~~~~~~~~~~

 **Jensen**

Jensen revived in the dark.  It always disoriented him and he never knew where he was.  The fact that it wasn’t cold, Wade wasn’t gloating while standing over him, and he wasn’t in a box eliminated his locationbeing at the coroner’s, captured, or buried.  It took him a minute longer to register that there was a sheet draped over him.

 _The guys must have kept me with them_ , he realized _.  From the fact that I’m not in agony or dying, I can assume Cougar kept his word._  

The thought of Cougar made him wince.  The team would probably be distressed from his apparent death.  He hoped that they hadn’t done anything stupid before he came back to life.

Jensen sat up and pulled the sheet off of him.  He was not looking forward to what was going to happen.  Experience told him that no matter how much he trusted mortals, their reaction to his immortality was never pleasant.  He wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up running from them with at least one new bullet wound.

The unpleasant, itching feeling of dried blood made him look down at his clothing.  His shirt was covered with dried blood and the large hole in the chest area indicated that his friends had ripped it open to get at that wound.  He briefly considered sneaking upstairs and changing out of his ruined clothes, but he decided against it.  He could easily get caught and creeping around like that would just make the situation worse. 

Besides, he could almost guarantee that they would require proof.  He always found it amusing when someone who just saw him rise from the dead still asked for a demonstration.  All explanations seemed to end with him in bloody clothes and he didn’t want blood stains onany more of his things.

Running a hand down his face in frustration Jensen realized two things.  First, the lack of itching on his face meant that someone had cleaned the blood off of it.  Second, he didn’t have his glasses for some reason.  He didn’t really need them, but it had been part of his current life and he felt oddly bare without them on. 

 _Well, I’d better get this over with_ , Jensen mentally sighed.  _If I’m really lucky, they will believe me and not try to kill me themselves.  Methos isn’t around to save me this time_.

Jensen stood up and wrapped the sheet around his chest to hide the worst of the evidence from sight.  He walked towards the stairs and focused for a second.  He could feel the faint buzz from Cougar so at least one of his friends was home.  If he was lucky Pooch, Clay, and Aisha were there as well.  He’d like to go through the explanations only once if he could help it.

Turning the handle on the door, Jensen quietly opened it up and stepped into the hallway.  He paused to listen and located the voices of his team in the living room.   He stuck his head around the corner and was relieved to see that all four of them were alright.

Pooch and Clay were arguing with Aisha at the moment.  They were debating the identity of Jensen’s shooter.  Cougar was sitting on the couch with his hat pulled down over his face, not participating in the debate.  Jensen hated himself for putting them through that and hoped that they’d forgive him for it.

Cougar spoke up, agreeing with Aisha about the man being Wade.  As Clay and Pooch turned to debate with him about that impossibility, Jensen was glad that at least half of them were willing to believe in the ridiculous.  It also gave him the perfect opening to reveal himself.

“Actually they’re right.  It was Wade and we have a serious problem,“ Jensen called out as he attempted to lean casually against the doorframe.  He was sure he failed epically at the attempt.

The others paused for a second and Jensen could see each of them taking in the sight of him standing there.  Without warning Clay sprinted across the space between them and pulled Jensen into the room.  He slammed him against the railing that framed the stairs leading up and pressed an arm into Jensen’s neck.

“Who the hell are you,” he snarled into Jensen’s face.

“Clay, it’s me.  You know: Jake Jensen, former corporal with the US army and hacker extraordinaire.”  Jensen choked out.

“Bullshit.  That man’s dead and I want to know what right you have impersonating him before I kill you myself.”

“Seriously, I’m Jacob Jensen!  Check the basement if you don’t believe me.  It’s not like you’ll find a body down there.  I mean, what kind of impersonator would actually steal the clothes off a dead man just to trick you into thinking he was alive?” Jensen paused as he thought of something.  “Wait, forget that example.  We did that in Ghana when one of our marks had a heart attack right before a buyer—”

Clay’s arm pressed harder into his neck and Jensen was forced to stop talking.  By that time Aisha and Pooch had moved to frame Clay.  Both of them wore murderous expressions.  Cougar had yet to stir from where he sat and the hat stopped Jensen from seeing his expression.

“I’ll check the basement,” Aisha volunteered as she moved off towards the door leading to the lower level.  It was a minute before she returned.  “There isn’t a body down there and the chain is still on the side door.”

“See.  It’s exactly like I told you,” Jensen rasped out.

Jensen hoped that Clay would remove his arm before he lost consciousness.  There was a lot to tell them and it wouldn’t be good if more time was lost because they hadknocked him out.  To his relief Clay released some of the pressure as Pooch held up a zip tie.  Aisha patted him down for weapons before pulling out a gun and aiming it at Jensen’s head.

“I am going to release you so that Pooch can tie your hands.  One wrong move and Aisha will kill you.  You are not going to talk unless we ask you a question.  Is that understood?” Clay asked.

“Yes sir,” Jensen replied.

Once he was restrained, Pooch yanked on his arm and pushed him down onto a chair Clay grabbed from the kitchen.  Pooch sat next to Cougar, who had yet to react.  Aisha pulled the drapes closed before leaning back on the wall.  Clay remained in front of him.

“If you really are Jensen, then prove it to us.  Show us how you survived,” Clay demanded.

“Well, my fingerprints will still match what you have on file and you can compare them to the ones all over my computers,” Jensen began.  When they didn’t react, he proceeded to go through a history of their various missions.  He made sure to include details that never made it into the reports; ones that only the team knew.

“…and then we had that Op in New Mexico.  Pooch and I accidentally bought soda water when we couldn’t find those purifying tablets and we all were stuck drinking it for half the mission.  It wasn’t until we made a stop in a small village that we were able to get regular bottled water.  We ended up using the soda water in drinks after we completed the mission.  Is that enough proof?” Jensen asked hopefully.  “I could start in on everyone’s sleeping habits as well as what they wear to bed.”

The suspicious, angry expressions on his teammates’ faces had changed into ones of disbelief.  He could tell they accepted that he was who he claimed to be.  The problem was that Jensen sitting in front of them was at odds with much of what they knew about the world.

“Pooch,” was Clay’s response as he nodded at the hacker.

Pulling out a knife, Pooch got up and walked behind Jensen.  The blade easily sliced open the restraints.  Jensen pulled his hands from behind his back and rubbed at his wrists.  The Quickening would take care of any damage, but that didn’t stop his wrists from aching for a little while.

“How are you alive?” inquired Aisha.

“This is now the show and tell portion of tonight’s meeting,” Jensen said cheerfully.  “I’ll show you the physical proof before explaining since that will make it easier to understand.  As a side note, I really, _really_ hate this part.  Pooch, let me have the knife.”

At Pooch’s hesitance Jensen exhaled in frustration.  “Oh come on.  You all have guns.  I just need a knife for a moment.  I promise I am not going to try anything.  This is necessary for the demonstration unless one of you wants to break my arm or something.”

After glancing at Clay, Pooch handed over his knife.

“Well,” Aisha said dubiously.

“Give me a minute.  You try slicing your arm open and see if you don’t take a breather first.”

With those words Jensen stabbed the tip of the knife into his outer arm near the elbow.  He gritted his teeth as he dragged the knife down to his wrist before taking in out.  The cut was long, but not deep enough to hit any major arteries.  Jensen really didn’t want to bleed out twice in one night. 

Instead of covering the wound up, like he normally would, he held out his arm for them to see.  As they watched the little arcs of electricity danced in the wound as it healed.

“Madre de Dios,” Cougar breathed out as the cut healed.

Jensen was happy he finally got some sort of response out of him.  He had been getting worried at the lack of reaction on Cougar’s part.

“What are you?” Clay asked, clearly shocked.  “How have we not seen this?”

“You haven’t noticed it before because I can control it to some extent.  I can delay it long enough for you guys to stitch me up.  I just have to remember to play up the wound afterwards,” Jensen responded, choosing to answer the second question first.  “If I’m complaining, you guys don’t look too closely at it because you assume I’ll tell you if there’s a complication.  Only the really old or really powerful of my kind can learn to do this.  I’m part of a group of people referred to as Immortals.  We’re like cockroaches:  really hard to kill and keep coming back.  Although if you think about it; that term is a bit of a misnomer.  Yeah we can live pretty much forever and come back from the dead if we don’t die a certain way.  The thing is, we can permanently die, though.  It’s just really hard to get to that point.

“I know some people who argue that we can die temporarily and therefore should not be called Immortals.  One of my friends suggested Resurrectionists, but the grave robbers beat us to that term.  Also, I don’t know why villains in movies and comics always seem to want to live forever.  It actually kind of sucks.  You see all your friends die and you keep on living.”

“Jensen, back on the subject,” Clay barked.

“Right.  What else do you want to know?”

“How did you become immortal?  Does everything heal or grow back?” Aisha spoke up.

“We think we’re born this way.  Every single one of us was a foundling.  Even the ones who swore they had been born to their mortal mothers were later proven to be adopted.  And no, not all of our parts can grow back.  If we lose a limb, it’s gone.  We can restore internal organs, but extremities are irreplaceable.”

“Was that why you didn’t want Aisha to point her gun at your crotch in that hotel room?” Pooch inquired with a smirk.

“Yep.  My dick would not have grown back.  I would not have been a happy camper to live another thousand years unable to have sex.”  Jensen quipped.  He was relieved that at least Pooch had relaxed enough to tease him.

“So how do we know if we are up against another Immortal?”

Jensen turned to Clay to answer his question.  “You guys can’t.  Immortals get a sort of buzzing sensation that lets us know another of our kind is in the area and we can get a faint version off of Pre-Immortals.  Often when a Pre-Immortal dies he or she is soon found by another Immortal.  If the older Immortal is good, then he’ll take the newbie under his wing and teach him about what it is to be Immortal if not, the newbie dies permanently.” 

Seeing Aisha open her mouth, Jensen guessed what she wanted to know.  “Before you ask, a Pre-Immortal is someone with the potential to become an Immortal.  The first death, as long as it isn’t a natural one, triggers the immortality and poof.  You are forever stuck at the age you died at.  I originally died when my friend accidentally pushed me out of a tree.”

“The old woman in the church,” Cougar said, hesitantly.

“You were there?” Jensen asked in disbelief.

“Sí.  Was worried about you.”

“Wait, what church?”  Pooch glanced between them, confused.

“Back in Red Hills. “ Jensen waived a hand, dismissing his question.  “Yeah, she was one.  Holy ground, no matter the religious source, is sort of a sanctuary.  We can’t kill each other on it.”

“Kill each other?  I thought you said you lived forever,” pointed out Aisha.

“No,” Jensen started to get annoyed.  He didn’t want to explain everything multiple times because people didn’t listen the first time.  “I said we could permanently die in a very specific way.  There are rules: never fight on holy ground, single combat only, there can be only one at the end.  The winner of the challenge absorbs the collected life experiences and power of the loser through an electrical storm called a Quickening.”

Jensen allowed them to think about what he was telling them.  He could tell they were getting overwhelmed and hoped that the interrogation ended soon.  As he watched he could see Clay come to a realization.

“There have been two unexplained storms while we’ve been on missions.”

“I got challenged twice.  I won,” Jensen said proudly.  He’d almost died the second time because he tripped over a tree root, but he’d gotten the advantage back.

“Why haven’t we heard about you guys before?”  The question came from Pooch.

“Well, we do kill each other so that works as a population control of sorts.  They actually do teach everyone about us in schools and churches.  It’s just not in a format where you would realize the truth.”

“Such as?” Clay prompted.

“Pretty much any one in mythology who was hard to kill or kept coming back from the dead was an Immortal.  Sometimes several legendary characters were all one person.  One of the oldest examples was Gilgamesh.  The four horsemen in Revelations were based on a band of immortals.  Don’t worry,” Jensen added, seeing the uneasiness in his friends.  “Three of the four are dead and the last was so disgusted by what he was that he has been trying to make up for his actions since then, not that you’ll get him to admit it out loud.”

Jensen chuckled as he thought of a good example to give them.

“The Greek god Zeus was just an Immortal.  It was funny in a way.  He was quite promiscuous and really would steal into the bedchambers of women to have sex with them.  He was really good at voice imitation and could fool the women in the dark into thinking that he was their husband.  They usually found out later that it wasn’t the case.”

Pooch made a scoffing noise at that.

“I’m not lying,” Jensen defended when he saw the identical looks of skepticism on their faces.  “Any woman who committed adultery and got pregnant would blame it on Zeus.  Here’s the thing, all Immortals are sterile so none of the children were actually his.”  He paused for a moment.  “Could I get a beer?  All this talking has made me thirsty.”

Clay stood up.  “No alcohol.  As much as I would love to get drunk right now, this really needs to be a sober conversation.”

Their team leader went into the kitchen and returned with a twelve pack of soda and passed one out to each of them, leaving the rest on the floor.  Jensen opened his and took a long gulp.  He really had been getting a dry throat and this gave his hands something to do as time wore on.  He did feel a bit more positive about the situation based on their behavior so far.  There seemed to be a reasonably good chance he’d survive this.

“There was a dark side to this story.  Zeus was actually a pretty nasty person.  His reputed lightning powers were all based on Quickenings.  He would often kill Pre-Immortals and then corral them in a cell of sorts.  Any time he needed a demonstration of his power he would bring one out and behead him or her.  He had taken over a hundred heads this way before I challenged him.  Yes, the geeky Jensen did kill the famous Greek god.  It was difficult and I don’t want to talk about it.” Jensen said that firmly enough that his friends didn’t try to get him to tell that story.

“It helps that some of the challenges are covered up by the Watcher’s Council,” Jensen continued.  “Let’s just leave it at the fact that they are the world’s oldest voyeuristic community.  They follow around Immortals, writing down their actions to keep a record of the truth.  Only a handful of Immortals even know they exist since many would just kill their Watcher without a thought.  Those of us that do know have become excellent at slipping by unnoticed and ditching a Watcher if we get assigned one. ”

“Back up a minute,” Pooch inserted into the conversation.  “If you killed Zeus, how old are you?”

“3547 years old in October.”  Jensen stated succinctly.

“Impossible,” Aisha breathed.

“Nope, I’m good with numbers so keeping track hasn’t been hard.  There are five others who are older than me.  Most Immortals end up dying before they get to one hundred.  Few live to see five hundred, much less a thousand.  Those that do generally are violent psychopaths or they have learned to adapt and hide.  One of my friends taught me the value of adapting.  It helps that I’ve always loved technology and been good with it.”

“You’re over three thousand years old and you still act like a five year old.  What the hell, man?”  Pooch asked in puzzlement.

“All part of my charm.  We can’t all be all knowing wise men like Clay here.” Jensen gestured at the aforementioned man as he replied.

“Jensen,” Clay growled.

“Just stating facts.” Jensen wasn’t the least bit intimidated by him at the moment.

“Why didn’t you tell us, tell me?” Cougar asked.

Jensen looked over at the sniper.  His tone had been neutral, but there was an undercurrent of hurt.  The cowboy hat was still covering Cougar’s eyes so he couldn’t read what was in them, but Jensen had a good guess.

“Cougar, it isn’t a matter of trusting you guys.  I trusted you with my life.  Had I died on any one of those missions, I’dve had to disappear.  What do you think would happen if someone like Max found out about me?  It wouldn’t end well for my kind.  When groups of mortals find out, there tends to be witch hunts,” Jensen stated earnestly.

“Do you really think we’d do that to you?” Pooch questioned, clearly shocked at the thought.

“The thing is, I didn’t know for sure,” Jensen responded as the memories washed over him.  “There was another group of people that I was with.  We were as close then as I am with you guys right now.  For them, that solidarity didn’t mean much.  It happened in the area now known as the Loch, or Lake, of Menteith.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

 **Jensen**

 **1157 Loch of Menteith**

The fighting had been going on for over an hour.  Alec Jacobson was starting to wear down, along with the other six of his brothers.  There were more raiders than they’d realized and it looked like his friends were going to lose. 

Suddenly a shout rose up from the left and the raiders began to flee.  He glanced over to see that Blaire was standing over the body of the leader.  With a smile he continued to fight his opponent.  Most of the raiders ran as soon as they lost that bastard and it wouldn’t be hard to drive off the remaining few.

“Alec, look out!”

He finished off the man in front of him and turned to see what Donal was warning him about.  As he shifted his focus, an arrow slammed into his chest.  He fell to the ground as his friends killed the bowman.

Angus and Ewan rushed to his side and began checking him over.  As he faded from consciousness Alec overheard them arguing, trying to find a way to save him.  He only hoped that he wouldn’t revive until he was alone.

Air rushed into Alec’s lungs as he took his first unhindered breath.  As he tried to stretch he met with resistance.  He opened his eyes and realized two things.  First, he was tied up with no way to undo his bonds, and second, his six friends were standing above him.

“What are you?  Nothing human could have healed like that,” Blaire demanded as soon as he realized Alec was awake.

“It’s kind of hard to explain,” he replied nervously. 

“You’re a demon,” Keith spat at him.

“No!” Alec all but shouted.  “I’m not a monster like that.  I’m something different, something God made special.”

“Tell us everything,” Angus ordered.

With no other choice Alec began talking.  He went through the generalities of what he was as well as some of his personal history.  He wisely left out how to permanently kill him, only that he hadn’t been able to die.

The seven of them had been fighting together ever since Alec had come across the unprotected village on the shores of Loch Menteith.  He taught them how to keep their home safe and in return they adopted him into the village, calling him brother.  He had been living with them for six years before the latest group of bandits appeared.

Now he was bound at their feet as they decided whether he was a threat to their home.  Keith and Niall were visibly ready to kill him.  Angus, Ewan, and Donal wore expressions of confusion and fear.  Blaire appeared to be the only one willing to hear him out.  He quickly wrapped up his tale and waited for judgment.

“We can’t let him near the village,” Donal finally spoke up. 

With his words, Alec realized that he was about to lose his friends.  Donal had been the closest to him after Blaire.

Blaire sighed before adding in his opinion.  “I agree.  I’m sorry Alec Jacobson, or whatever your real name is.  For the safety of everyone you have to die.”

As soon as Blaire stated those words, Keith hit him over the head knocking him out.

Alec awoke to the smell of fire.  He snapped his eyes open and realized exactly how his former friends were planning on getting rid of him. 

It was a tradition of the village to build a pyre and burn the bodies of enemies.  It was simple to add his body to the pile.  The smoke soon overcame him and he fell back into blessed blackness.

Pain greeted Alec as he revived.  His flesh was in agony and he figured out with the small portion of his mind not devoted to pain that he’d risen before his burns had finished healing.  His throat was ruined enough that he couldn’t even cry out.  Voices above him were shouting at each other and he was roughly grabbed by the arms and dragged away.  As soon as he felt searing heat on his skin, Alec came to the horrible conclusion that his former friends meant to keep burning him until he permanently died.

Alec lost count of how many times they tried to burn him.  His world narrowed to blistering pain.

Some indeterminate time later, Alec woke up without feeling the tongues of fire embracing him.  Instead his body was being dragged somewhere. 

Opening his eyes, he saw that he was near the shores of the loch.  His feet were bound with rope and connected to several heavy rocks packed together in a net. 

He was too weak to struggle as Niall and Ewan lifted him into the boat that was near them.  Blaire was already in the there, holding the oars as the other two pushed the boat in the water before hopping in themselves.  They rode out just far enough to ensure that the water would complexly hide him from view when they tossed him in.

“Why?” Alec croaked out in a broken voice.

“All creatures must die eventually.  We hope that the water will take you to paradise where the fire was unable to,” Blaire told him.

“No,” Alec protested weakly.

“I’m sorry my friend, but this is for the best,” Niall spoke up softly.  The older man placed a hand gently on Alec’s face.  “By your inability to burn away, it is clear Hell cannot take you.  Water should release your soul to God.”

With those words Ewan and Niall gently lowered his body into the water before Blaire tossed the weight overboard.  The bag of rocks rapidly sank to the bottom, taking Alec with it.

Alec quickly drowned.  It didn’t take long before his body came back to life and tried to breath.  The only problem was that there was no air to take in.  Alec tried to pull his mind deep within himself the second time he revived underwater.  He knew he’d go crazy if he spent an eternity down there conscious every time his body came back to life.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The first thing the man realized as he gained consciousness was that he wasn’t under water.  He didn’t understand why he expected to be surrounded by the liquid, but that was what his brain was telling him.  He stretched muscles stiff with inactivity before trying to sit up.

An arm wrapped around his shoulders, holding firm when he tried to flinch away.

“Drink this,” a low voice commanded.  “I dare say you must be sick of the stuff by now, but your body needs the clean water.”

The man obediently opened his mouth and accepted the water that was poured into it.  Looking up, the man took the opportunity to observe the person with him.  The other man appeared to be in his thirties, quite old for the times, and had dark hair and dark eyes.  He realized that the headache that he’d had when he woke up went away as soon as he observed the other man.

Once the water was gone, his rescuer spoke again.  “You may call me Methuselah.  Now why don’t you tell me who you are and how you managed to get into that horrible predicament.”

The man opened his mouth to reply then closed it briefly in distress before speaking.  “I can’t remember anything.  I have no idea who I am.”

“Well that is quite the problem, isn’t it?”  Methuselah sighed and seemed to come to some sort of decision.  “Let me tell you about a group of beings called Immortals.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

 **Jensen**

 **2011 San Francisco, California**

“It took me a hundred years to regain all my memories.  Methuselah had heard about the spirit in the loch and went to investigate,” Jensen took a sip of his soda before continuing.  “He knew that leaving someone to perpetually drown was worse than simply taking his head.  Had I shown any indication of instability or leaning towards violence, he would have permanently killed me.  ‘There are too many violent Immortals already for him to unleash another one on the world,’ was his explanation of why he retrieved me.

“Turns out, he got to the village two months after that battle I was killed in.  To me that time seemed like an eternity.  The rest of the village had been told that Alec Jacobson was killed in action and that they’d tossed a demon into the loch.  Methuselah figured out the truth, determined where I was released into the water, and then stole a boat and pulled me out.  His plan was originally to kill me once he got me out of there.  Seeing that I was catatonic instead of raving madly as he expected, he decided to give me a chance. 

“Methuselah took me as a student, teaching me everything that I had lost when my memory was blocked.  He showed me how to adapt and survive in the world,” Jensen paused and laughed at a memory.  “He also had a habit of sticking me with the bills at the bars we frequented.”

 _It wasn’t until later that I found out who Methuselah really was.  Even then, Methos was using the ‘too-old-to-remember-my-age’ routine_.  Jensen reflected on his second teacher.  _He admitted to more as my memory returned and we realized that I was pretty damned old, rather than the newbie we were assuming I was_.

“Once he felt I was prepared, Methuselah and I parted ways.  We’d run into each other over the years and he became one of the few Immortals I could call a friend.” Jensen mood fell again as he thought back to the other group.  “I’ve never forgotten what those six put me through.  I don’t blame them, considering the beliefs of the period, but I haven’t been able to trust anyone that deeply again until I met you guys.  The similarities are a bit haunting, actually.  Clay, you and Blaire have very similar personalities and Roque was a lot like Keith.”

Jensen clenched the hand not holding the soda can as the memories began to overcome him again.  A hand on his shoulder caused him to look up from where he was staring at the floor.  Cougar finally moved from where he’d been sitting and appeared to be offering some comfort in his own way. 

“Mi amigo,” was all Cougar said.

Searching his eyes, Jensen was able to read what Cougar wasn’t saying.  There was sympathy for what he went through and there was pain.  Jensen blinked in shock as he comprehended that the pain was in reaction towhat hehad experienced, rather than to his lying to the Losers about what he really was.

Taking a chance, Jensen looked at the rest of the group.  Both Pooch and Aisha looked ill from his story.    Jensen caught Clay’s eye, prompting him tospeak.

“We won’t let that happen to you.” Clay had the determined don’t-mess-with me look on his face that told Jensen his commander was serious.

A final bit of tension that Jensen hadn’t even known was there drained out of him and he slumped back in his chair.  He felt as exhausted as he would have after hacking for three days straight or fighting a full day without taking a break. 

“Wow.  Now I know what it’s like being questioned by you guys.  I’m surprised the bad guys don’t break sooner.”

That comment elicited a laugh out of Pooch and caused the other three to smile slightly.

“Let’s call it a night.  We need a break to digest what Jensen’s told us.”  Clay picked up the remaining cans of soda and took them into the kitchen.

“I haven’t told you guys about Wade yet,” Jensen protested.

“Tomorrow,” Clay countered.  “I have a feeling it will be more of what you told us tonight and I want a chance to think about everything.  I’ll take first watch and in four hours Pooch will have the second, followed by Cougar if people are still sleeping.  Get some rest people.  I have a feeling tomorrow will be a long day.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

 **Cougar**

Cougar was already in his bed when he heard Jensen get into the shower down the hall.  He had avoided going into the room while the hacker was gathering his stuff for the bathroom.  As usual the two had been sharing a room and Cougar wanted a moment to think without the younger man’s presence.

What he had told them had been incredible, the sort of thing that got you checked into a hospital for believing.  Yet the proof was right there.  Jensen had been dead and now he wasn’t.  He cut himself and they all saw the wound heal in front of them.  He knew all the details of their ops that never made it into the reports and he still rambled more than anyone Cougar knew.

It seemed like a miraculous gift at first **.**   Then Jensen started to go into the details.  Watching everyone you knew die as you stayed the same had to be one of the worst tortures Cougar could imagine.  When he began describing what that other group of men had done to him, the sniper wished he could track down each oneof them and kill them himself. 

The truth seemed to pull together a thousand inconsistencies that made Jensen who he was.  It was like seeing a target move around behind drapes and then suddenly having the curtains drawn back.  Now he knew where Jensen’s paranoia originated, why he didn’t let people mess with his wounds once they were dressed, his random migraines, and his vast knowledge of trivia. 

The only thing was Cougar no longer knew exactly how he felt about the other man.  He still loved him, that hadn’t changed, but the circumstances had.  He couldn’t burden his friend with how he felt.  It would be one thing to love someone with a finite lifespan, but quite another if he were to continue living.  The one thing Cougar was sure of, when Jensen moved on he would go with him.  The old woman was right.  Despite his incredible age, Jensen was more fragile in some ways than he thought.

A low ‘oh’ got Cougar’s attention.  Jensen stood hesitantly in the doorway.

“I, uh, I forgot we were sharing a room.  I can go sleep on the couch or something if you don’t want me in here.”

Cougar could see that the other man was still afraid that they were going to reject him.  How many times had that happened in the past for him to be so unsure of himself and his friends?  There had to be more times than just the one he had told them about.

“Está bien,” Cougar told him and twitched his hand in the direction of the second bed.

“Thanks.  I wasn’t sure you still didn’t mind sharing…” Jensen replied brightly as he began to ramble.

Cougar let the familiar tumble of words wash over him.  For some reason Jensen’s voice had a soothing quality to it and Cougar liked to hear him talk, not that he’d admit it out loud. 

It was another fifteen minutes before Jensen settled into bed and turned out the lights.  Cougar lay there thinking about all the changes that had occurred that day.  From Jensen’s breathing patterns, he could tell the blond was still awake.

“Spanish?” Cougar finally said into the dark.

There was a pause before Jensen replied.  “Most languages actually.  It makes it easier to blend in when you have the languages down as well as the accents.  Some Immortals keep their original accents, but I prefer to blend in more.  Since I got so skilled in computers and technology I’ve had to pretend to not know more than a couple languages.  Too many skills gets you noticed in a bad way.  A computer geek shouldn’t be able to speak most of the world’s languages in addition to his technological skills.  It also helps with being underestimated.  Most Immortals over a hundred aren’t really into the scientific and technological changes that have occurred in the last few years.  They see the computer geek and assume I am pretty new to all this.” 

Jensen paused and Cougar could hear him shifting on the other bed.  “For that matter, the Immortals that do go into languages tend to either stick to one or two specific ones or they make a career out of being a translator.  Immortals in the hundreds have often learned the dead languages and can make a go at research and translation of older texts.  Some of us simply go into antiques as a career.  It’s amusing that the customers never know that often the oldest object in the room is the person telling them about the pieces.”

Cougar snorted at that.  That situation really did have humor in it.  He decided to broach another subject that had occurred to him.

“Jessica y Melanie?”

There was an even longer pause this time.  “I’m only telling you this since I don’t think you will try to hurt them.  As you probably figured out, Jessica isn’t really my sister.  She’s another Immortal and one of my former students.  We occasionally pretend to be a family, either siblings or married, as a change in the cover story.  It’s Melanie that’s the problem.”

At the darker tone that laced his voice, Cougar sat up.  Jensen did as well and they stayed there for some time staring at each other in the darkness.  Cougar had no idea how a little girl could be a problem, but he suddenly had a guess.

“Immortal.”

“She’s a Pre-Immortal, thankfully.  There was another Immortal that was collecting pre’s, exactly like Zeus did.  Only unlike Zeus, this monster focused on children.  He’d kidnap them when he came across them and hold them in his basement.  He’d give them a first death, then their permanent deaths.  Jessica found out and tracked him down.  He’d already taken Melanie, who was five at the time, from the orphanage and was getting ready to kill her.  Jessica challenged him and won.  Once Melanie returned, Jessica called me to set up an airtight identity so that she could adopt the girl.  Mel knew what we were because that bastard explained it to her and Jessica wanted to protect her. 

“There have been times when Immortals died as children.  They either quickly lost their heads or found ways to adapt and use others for their protection.  The ones that live tend to be sociopaths.  Neither of us wants Mel to go through that.”

Cougar understood Jensen’s desire to protect his niece.  Mel was too full of life and happiness to have that ripped from her.  The little girl was obviously loved.  To Cougar, that showed more about Jensen than anything else he knew.  To be able to love after how many years of watching bloodshed said quite a bit about a man.  It was the reason why he remained with the others.  Clay, Pooch, and even Aisha were also still able to love when so many soldiers in their position couldn’t.

“If you protect her, why stay with us?”  That had also been weighing on his mind.  From what he put had together, most Immortals moved on after a few years because their lack of aging would make them stand out.

“Several reasons, actually.”  Jensen sighed and Cougar watched as he ran his hand through his hair.  “I really do care about you guys.  I believed what we did was important before and now that we know about Max I intend to help you guys stop him.  If I can keep Jolene from losing her husband I will.  It’s the same with your family and Clay’s family.  I know what it’s like to lose those you care for and I don’t want that to happen to you.  Even Aisha deserves to live.  You guys are good people and shouldn’t have had Max happen to you.  Besides, Jessica can take care of herself and Mel knows what to do if she gets separated from us.”

Jensen stopped talking, but from the weight of the silence he knew that there was more.  Instead of saying anything, Cougar just waited.  Jensen always confessed what was on his mind if the sniper was patient enough.  Finally Jensen broke the silence.

“One of you guys is also a Pre-Immortal.”

Cougar couldn’t say anything at first.  Even after hearing about everything he never imagined that that was possible.  This meant that one of them was going to keep on living.  Immortals were sterile, according to Jensen, so that ruled out Pooch.  Aisha wasn’t with them until recently so she was not the Pre-Immortal and they were sure Roque was dead so he was out.  Plus, Jensen referred to the Pre-Immortal in the present tense so it was one of them in the house.  That left only two options.

“Clay or I,” Cougar deduced.

“Yes, but I’m not telling you which.  I’ve seen too many times where a Pre-Immortal found out the truth and acted recklessly, dying well before they needed to.  Or they purposefully killed themselves to gain the ability to regenerate; not realizing how not aging affected them.  Often it’s a public death and the person hadn’t thought about how they would have to give up their old life because of the sensation their death caused.”

Cougar dropped the subject even though he really wanted to know who it was.  He could tell from Jensen’s tone that his friend was not going to say any more on the subject.  With their lives, they’d find out soon enough.  Besides, he couldn’t decide if he wanted it to be him or not.

Cougar lay back down and listened as Jensen did the same.  It was a long time before Cougar fell asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~

 **Jensen**

The next morning saw the Losers gathered around the kitchen table.  Cougar had apparently chosen to cook breakfast for everyone when they started to wake up.  Jensen was grateful because he was always hungry after reviving and the sniper made really tasty pancakes from scratch. 

Jensen had ended up sleeping for nine hours and had been so exhausted that he hadn’t even woken up when Pooch got Cougar for his shift.  When he finally opened his eyes he had a moment of panic when he didn’t see the sniper.  The bed was made and for a brief moment of insecurity Jensen thought that they had left him while he was recovering.  As he calmed down he felt the faint buzz that all Pre-Immortals had coming from downstairs.  He tossed on a pair of jeans and his Inigo Montoya name badge T-shirt before heading downstairs.

The others were already at the kitchen table so he slid into one of the open chairs and watched Cougar cook.  The uncomfortable silence he expected was absent.  Clay was reading a newspaper while Pooch was checking up on Jolene using the program Jensen had set up.  Aisha was sharpening a knife but in a nonthreatening manner.

It wasn’t long before the pancakes were ready and Cougar placed three stacks on the table.  Jensen dug into one from the first pile and was halfway through it before he realized that there were chocolate chips in the pancake.  It was his favorite type.  He glanced over at Cougar, who was smirking slightly at him and mouthed a ‘thank you’ before digging back in.  The other types were plain and blueberry, which appealed to everyone on the team.

“Let’s get down to business,” Clay stated after everyone had eaten for a bit.  “Jensen, was that really Wade who attacked you?”

Jensen took a last bite of his pancake before replying.  “It was Wade.  I had a feeling he was alive when no Quickening was released at the Port of LA.  I had hoped that he lost at least one limb when he flew into one of theplane’s engines.  I didn’t think he would go after us because he hasn’t taken revenge any other time one of his schemes fell through.”

“Who is he exactly?” Aisha looked Jensen directly in the eyes.

“Wade was born William Gray of Leicester in 1437.  He experienced his first death at the age of forty-four when he was thrown from a horse and broke his neck.  He learned how to manipulate people from his teacher, who was a minor noble at the time.  The first head he took was that of his teacher.  Throughout history he could be found working under some of the most powerful men in history.  For every war, he was one of the people convincing the instigators to start it.  He figured out it was better to appear obedient and indispensible than to try to take over.  We have history together, but I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Is that why you guys had an instant dislike that time we worked with him?”

“Yeah, Pooch.  I was surprised he didn’t challenge me then.  I think he was already working for Max at the time.  He wouldn’t have risked his position with the other man just to get rid of me if I wasn’t interested in fighting.”

“That’s nice, but it still doesn’t answer what we’re going to do,” Aisha pointed out.

Clay was the one to answer her.  “We need to figure out what he’s doing here as well as how noticeable the events at the port were.  Jensen, Aisha, and I will go back and see if we can’t get into their system and read the reports.  Pooch, restock the ammo.  Cougar, I want you to keep an eye on the safe house.  We know Wade is looking for us and I want to keep this location secure.  As soon as we know more we can plan on how to deal with him.”

They quickly finished off breakfast and headed out to complete their tasks.  Jensen couldn’t help but feel a bit uneasy at leaving Pooch and Cougar without backup.

~~~~~~~~~~~

 **Wade**

Wade watched as most of the Losers left their safe house.  It took all of his control not to just start shooting at them.  It helped that the deaths he had planned for the Losers would be far more satisfying than taking them out now.

He had bribed one of Aisha’s contacts into giving him a list of possible locations where they could be staying.  He hadnarrowed down the list and soon figured out where they were.  It was simple to break into a house down the street whose family was on vacation and keep an eye on them.  The house had the added benefit of being out of Jensen’s range.  Observation would be able to tell him when Jensen left where his own buzz was definitely unable to.

The trick was to get to the house after he came back to life last night without being seen.  He had cleaned the mess with bleach the minute he woke up.  All the necessary cleaning chemicals had been in the area because he had been sure he would have taken care of the Losers by then.

When he got back he saw five shadows in the living room and hadfigured that Jensen had revived and was telling them about the Game.  He was clearly alive the next day so his team must have accepted him.  It would be gratifying to kill them in front of him.  Even better would be to kill Jensen and let the others know he was going to stalk them until he could take them down one by one.  They ruined one of his best plans and he was furious about it.

 _Perfect._ He thought as the four piled into the car _.  The sniper is the only one at the house.  I owe him for both Ports and Jensen would do anything to get him back safely_.

Wade pulled out a rifle and lined up his shot.

~~~~~~~~~~~

 **Jensen**

A half day had gone by before Jensen got back to the safe house.  There was nothing at the port that indicated the people in charge knew there had been intruders and a fight on their property the night before.  Wade must have cleaned up after the fight as that much blood would have caused the port to go on alert.  Clay decided to track down one of his sources to see if they had anything useful to tell him while Aisha decided to do the same with her informants. 

Jensen had gone to a coffee shop and hacked into the Watcher database.  According to them William Gray, who was going by Loomis at the time, disappeared when an American submarine sank during WWII.  One of the few survivors was his Watcher and he reported that Wade had swum out of the submarine while it was deep under water.  The Watcher couldn’t follow for obvious reasons and they didn’t have any record of him ever reaching land.

Jensen decided his next move was to hack the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.  He could observe the cameras near the port and figure out where Wade went after the fight.  He didn’t want to do that hack in public so he headed back to the safe house.  On the way Jensen radioed Clay to tell him of his plans and change in location.  Clay acknowledged and replied that he would be a while longer and not to check in unless it was an emergency.

Jensen hopped off the bus he had taken to the neighborhood and walked back the rest of the way.  This was his favorite part of a mission; hacking at the base with Cougar watching his back.  He reached the house and unlocked the front door before heading in.

“Honey, I’m home,” he called out.

His words were met with silence.  Now Jensen was used to Cougar not speaking for multiple hours, but he always responded when one of the team returned to the base if he remained behind.

“Cougs?”

 Jensen was getting worried as his friend continued to not answer.  That’s when he realized that he couldn’t feel him either.

The slam of a car door had Jensen peaking out around the curtains.  The familiar sight of the van Pooch was driving met his eyes.  He didn’t even let Pooch get into the door before speaking.

“Pooch, do you know where Cougar went?”

“Wait, isn’t he supposed to be here?” 

“Yes, but he won’t answer me and I am pretty sure he’s not even in the house.  I’ve only had the chance to look around on this level, but there isn’t a note.  I don’t think he told Clay that he was leaving seeing as Clay didn’t warn me when I told him I was coming back.”

Jensen was pleased to see Pooch pull out his own gun.  That meant he was taking the situation as seriously as Jensen was.  The other man signaled at the stairs and Jensen nodded back.

They carefully made their way up the steps and into the upstairs hall, covering each other.  The two men checked each room in the hall until they got to the small bedroom Jensen and Cougar were sharing.  When they opened the door the first thing they noticed was Cougar’s hat sitting on Jensen’s bed.

“Jensen, the floor.”

Jensen looked down to where Pooch had indicated and saw a large red stain on the ground.  Taking in more details he saw what appeared to be a bullet hole in the window.

“No.”  Jensen stared in horror at the room as he dropped his gun.

Pooch moved past him and over to the bed.  Lifting Cougar’s cowboy hat, Pooch revealed that Cougar’s radio and a piece of paper were underneath. 

Jensen barely reacted.  His eyes were stuck on the pool of blood drying on the ground.  Suddenly his legs felt like rubber and he fell to the ground himself. 

Pooch swore before walking back over.  “Jensen.  Pull yourself together and read this.  I’m calling Clay.”  With that, the darker man shoved the paper into his hands and pulled out his own radio.

“Clay, this is Pooch…It’s an emergency.” Pooch jerked the radio away from his ear and Jensen could hear the bellow from where he sat.  “Cougar’s missing and the evidence suggests he’s been shot and then taken somewhere else…Yeah, Jensen’s with me…Alright…Got it.  We’ll be here.”

Switching off his radio, Pooch walked back over to Jensen.  “I’m going downstairs to wait for Aisha and Clay.”

Jensen didn’t reply as he left.  He just looked down at the paper in his hand.

When the sound of Pooch’s footsteps faded, Jensen finally unfolded it to read what was inside.

 

JENSEN

I HAVE YOUR APPRENTICE.  IF YOU WANT HIM BACK YOU’LL HAVE TO FIGHT FOR HIM.  MEET ME TONIGHT AT 1AM ON ALCATRAZ ISLAND IN CELL BLOCK B. 

\--WILLIAM GRAY

 

At the sound of a second car, Jensen went downstairs to meet up with the others.  Pooch was already in the living room with their weapons and ammunition spread out on the floor.  Jensen sank down onto the sofa as Clay and Aisha walked in.

Aisha had a murderous look on her face and immediately spoke.  “Clay informed me of what you told him so I pressed my contact harder.  Turns out that bastard sold us out to Wade.” Her face lit up with a terrifying smile.  “At least the idiot will no longer be able to sell me out.”

Jensen couldn’t help but shudder at her expression.  He’d met headhunters that were less scary than Aisha. 

In response Jensen handed them the letter Wade had left.  Their expressions darkened as they read the simple note.

“Why does he refer to Cougar as your apprentice?”  Clay turned to Jensen with a hard expression on his face.

“It’s because Cougar is Pre-Immortal.  He’s the reason I stayed with you guys as long as I did.  I didn’t want him to die without having a teacher on hand.  If ‘Jacob Jensen’ was killed before him, I was going to hack the CIA and stalk you guys so I could be on hand when he died.  Wade would have realized this when he first met Cougar, but he isn’t into killing Pre-Immortals so there’s a chance that wasn’t a killing shot.”

“You know what; I really don’t want to know why you didn’t mention this before.” Clay sighed and ran a hand down his face.  “We have to get him back.”

“I have to do it myself.”  Jensen stood up.  “This note is a formal challenge and it’s against the rules for you guys to interfere.”  At their discontent looks he quickly continued.  “I’m not suggesting you stay behind since you all would be more likely to tie me up and leave me here if I try to go alone. “

“What do you propose we do?”  Aisha asked.

“Be my back up.  If I lose my head I want you guys to shoot Wade and get Cougar out of there.  Go to my sister and she’ll help you guys.  During the actual fighting, though, it has to be one on one with bladed weapons.  That’s one of the rules.  Unfortunately only a small part of Alcatraz Island counts as holy land.  I wish all of it did since we aren’t allowed to fight to the death on sacred ground.  If we tried, our weapons could explode or even worse.  The eruption of Mount Vesuvius was actually caused by two Immortals fighting in a temple in Pompeii.  Both died and I don’t think the City by the Bay would appreciate being destroyed, especially considering it’s the second most densely populated city in the US.  We’d probably cause it to fall into the ocean or something.”

Clay glared at him.  “I don’t like this plan.”

“It’s the best we have.”  Jensen didn’t like the plan any better than they did.

“Alright.  This is your area of expertise so we have to follow your directions.  We still need to get to the island.  At least that late at night, we can avoid civilian witnesses.  Pooch, you need to acquire a small boat that can overcome the currents so we can get to the island.  Jensen, I need you to pull up a map of the penitentiary.  We need to be aware of all the entrances to not only the cell block but also to the wing and the entire building.  We need to arrive early so we can cover the cell block adequately.  Are there any questions?”

“What are you going to use to fight with, Jensen?  You said blades, but I’ve never seen you use anything larger than a military issued knife.  I don’t even know where you would get larger edged weapons capable of lasting in a battle.  That was Roque’s territory.”  Pooch was clearly worried about the actual battle.

“I need to make a trip into town,” Jensen informed them.  “In this identity, I couldn’t carry around a sword everywhere I went so I rented storage units around the world.  There is one in town that has a few good weapons.  Unlike many other Immortals, I never fell in love with a single sword so I don’t mind using one of the ones I have on hand and I’m in practice with all the types in that unit.”

 Jensen couldn’t help sounding smug at that.  He thought it was a weakness to be too in love with a single item.  You had to be prepared to leave everything behind if something went wrong.

“Call up the map and then go get your weapons.  I want you practicing in the basement the minute you get back. ” Clay may not like the plan, but Jensen could tell he was going to go along with it.  Honestly, they’d carried out worse plans in the past.

With that announcement, the group fell into action.

~~~~~~~~~~~

 **Cougar**

Over the years Cougar had gotten used to waking up in strange locations and his immediate reaction was to hold still.  The concrete underneath him and the gag in his mouth were obvious signs that something had gone wrong yet again.  One thing he had learned was to stay still if he could.  Captors often revealed more in conversation if they thought their prisoner was unconscious. 

There were no immediate sounds near his location so Cougar assumed that he was alone.  There was only one breathing rhythm echoing in the room, which reinforced the sniper’s conclusion.  He used the opportunity to take stock of his physical condition. His arms and legs were tied up tight enough that circulation might become a problem after a while, but beyond that he appeared to be in good condition.

The only evidence that contradicted his conclusion was the metallic smell of blood around him.  He couldn’t taste it in the air around the gag so the source of the blood was more likely to be him than the surrounding room. 

Opening his eyes he was met with almost complete darkness.  The only source of light came from the crack under the door to his jail.  The glow wasn’t strong enough for him to see anything useful.  Cougar was slumped against one wall and the careful stretching out of his legs quickly found the opposite wall.  He guessed he was in a closet of some sort.

The distant sound of footsteps caused Cougar to pull in his legs to get back into the position he woke up in.  As the footsteps got closer he noticed a small headache start to form, but pushed back the discomfort.

The person stopped outside of where he was tied up.  He could hear the squeal of the hinges as the door opened and the person step into the room.  Without warning, Cougar was kicked in the chest and he opened his eyes automatically.

“Much better,” said Wade’s easily recognizable voice. “It took you forever to revive.  I keep forgetting that the first death is always the longest to come back from.”

Cougar looked up at him with a glare.  This man had obviously hurt Jensen in the past and succeeded in kidnapping him now.  The sniper wanted nothing more than to have his gun so he could kill the man for the third time.

Wade merely ignored Cougar’s glower and grabbed him by the back of his shirt.  Cougar struggled as hard as he could.  He wasn’t about to make it easy for the bastard.

“Stop moving,” ordered Wade.  When Cougar didn’t stop, Wade pulled out a gun and used the butt to hit him on the head, dazing him.  “You’ll be happy to know that your friends are on the way, not that it will help you.  As soon as I have you secure we will wait for them and then finish this.”

The blow to the head dazed him and it took a minute for Cougar to recover.  In the back of his mind he noted that the initial headache was gone and the blow to the head replaced it with another one.

“You know,” Wade said conversationally, “If you weren’t dating the hacker I wouldn’t have targeted you specifically for this.  It would have been easy enough to track you down later and take your head then.  I’ve made it a habit to kill Jensen’s loved ones in front of him.  I wasn’t sure, the first time I met you Losers, if the two of you were involved.  Between the looks you give each other and how often the two of you touch, I’ve been able to figure it out.  Well, we’re here.”

Wade stopped dragging Cougar when they entered what appeared to be an old prison block.  Taking for granted that they’d still be in San Francisco, he deduced that this was the infamous Alcatraz Penitentiary.  Wade pulled out a set of zip ties and bound the sniper to the bars on one of the cell doors.

“Stay put.” Wade chuckled at the joke. “I’ll be right back.”

As the other man walked away, Cougar took the opportunity to take stock of his body’s condition.  He was wearing the clothes that he had put on that morning so whatever Wade had done to get the jump on him hadn’t included memory loss.  The front of his white shirt was covered in blood and that worried him.  He didn’t feel like he was hurt, but the blood had to come from some source.

Cougar froze as he abruptly processed what Wade had justsaid to him.  Reviving from a first death?  A sinking feeling entered his gut.

 _Mierda. Esto no puede estar sucediendo._

Then the second part of the conversation registered.  Wade thought there was something going on between Jensen and him and Cougar had no idea how to react to that.

The sniper wished he had some way to tell Jensen not to come for him.  He didn’t want the hacker to risk his life just to get him.  He wasn’t worth it.  Jensen was the only reason Cougar was as sane as he was.  If Jensen died for him, it would destroy him.

 _Mi corazón, no vengas para mí._

~~~~~~~~~~~

 **Jensen**

The Losers arrived at the dock on the island at 12:45am.  Aisha hopped lightly up to the dock and tied the small boat to it while Pooch kept it steady.  All the staff had gone home for the night and there wasn’t a night guard because of how difficult the island was to get to after dark. 

As soon as all the equipment was off the boat Jensen pulled his laptop out of its waterproof case and hacked into the electronic surveillance.  Someone had shut down the cameras in the areas that they were headed for.  Just in case, Jensen called up the recordings from the previous night and copied them.  He found the timestamp where the cameras had been shut off and the corresponding timestamp on the earlier footage.  It was simple enough to erase the data on the copy and set up a program to insert the new timestamp over the erased parts.  No matter what the outcome was, security would only see empty halls for the evening, at least until an unusual lightning storm took out the electronics.  Jensen didn’t kid himself about the outcome.  One Immortal was going to die tonight.

The team had to move carefully into the compound.  Because the cameras were physically turned off, Jensen was unable to track the location of Wade and Cougar.  To remedy that, he hacked one of the military satellites but it was in the wrong position to see the island.  Jensen was unable to move it much without his meddling being noticed.  They had to go in blind, something all of them hated to do.

It took them a good ten minutes to get to Cell Block B.  When they were in the area Aisha and Clay proceeded to climb to the second floor cells.  This would give them the ability to cover the fight from above.  Pooch stayed with Jensen on the ground floor.  As soon as he felt the buzz, Jensen radioed his teammates.

“Guys, I have some bad news.”

::What is it, Jensen. ::  Clay sounded apprehensive over the line.

“I can feel _two_ Immortals in the cell block.”

::Could Wade have brought a second Immortal with him?:: asked Aisha.

“Possible, but I don’t feel the fainter buzz I usually get from a Pre-Immortal.”

::Damn,:: Clay swore.

“Guys, remember, no matter what you have to get Cougar out of here.  If I don’t make it, take him to Jessica.  She’ll know what to do.”  Jensen prayed to any deity that might exist that he would be the winner.  ”Remember, no matter what you cannot interfere, except to keep Wade from cheating.  Not even to save my life.  I have to follow the rules.”

::Jensen, you better win.  That’s an order. :: Clay’s voice had an edge of steel in it.

“I had no idea you could control that sort of thing Clay.  It’s kind of awesome if you can,” Jensen joked to calm his nerves. “I’m going in.”

Jensen set down his bags and pulled out a long sword.  It was the type of weapon he was most comfortable with.  He also pulled out a small aluminum lined bag.

“What is that?” Pooch asked when he noticed the second item.

“It’s a booster bag,” Jensen replied cheerfully.  “There’s going to be some major electricity flying around tonight and I don’t want my baby to get fried.  The bag acts like a mini-Faraday cage and shoplifters often use it to hide the electronic security tags from the electronic detection systems.  Very illegal to be caught with one in your possession. Also very useful if you are an electronics-obsessed Immortal”

Jensen slid his laptop into the smaller bag before securing it in the larger equipment bag.  He unsheathed his sword and walked purposefully into the cell block. 

What he saw made him angry and the soft expletive from behind indicated Pooch felt the same.  Standing in the middle of the floor was Wade, carrying a long sword of his own.  It already had blood on it.  Cougar was tied to one of the cell doors, a pool of something, most likely blood, lay around him. 

It would take a couple minutes for his team to get into place.  Clay had to get to the other end of the cell block and sneak down to the main floor in order to free Cougar.  He couldn’t actually get near the sniper until the Immortals started fighting because Wade might try to attack him.  The thing was that Jensen had no idea how long of a battle it would be and wanted Clay to be ready to get to Cougar the minute they started fighting.  So he did what he did best when he had to stall, he talked.

“Hey Wade, did you miss me?”  Jensen stepped into the cell block with those words.  He was relieved to see Cougar lift his head.  That meant he would be mobile when Clay got to him.

“Not at all,” Wade replied, grinning.  “I felt you wandering around back there for a few minutes and wondered if you would show yourself.”

“Before we begin I am curious about something and want to ask you about it.  How the hell did you manage to track us around the country?”  It was both a stalling question and one Jensen genuinely wanted to know the answer to.

 “I knew you guys would get around to investigating Mormel Securities pretty quickly.  That was the group that tried to recruit Aisha al-Fadhil’s father and it was an obvious connection to Max.  All I did was to make them a bit more careless then they normally would be.” Wade cruelly smiled at that.  “The execution of a few people at several of their major branches and they were eager to push forward the dates of their drug transfers.  I just had to keep an eye on the San Francisco Port and wait for you Losers to come to me.”

Jensen blinked at the explanation.  “That’s…actually kind of clever in a sick and twisted way.  Why are you after us?  You don’t normally kill the people that thwart you.”

“Thwart?  You need to stop watching all that television.  I went after your team because I wasn’t even remotely done manipulating Max.  I was planning on having the greatest war yet started by him.  Thanks to you idiots ‘Wade’ died too soon to set everything up.” 

Wade gestured with his sword at Cougar.  “Besides, I enjoy tormenting the people you’ve actually fallen in love with, Jensen.  What was the name of that girl I killed in the eighteenth century?  Amelia?  Amy?  It doesn’t matter.  She still died by my hand.  You are always obvious when you allow yourself to fall in love.  It was easy for me to figure out who held your heart this time.”

“You bastard,” Jensen snarled.

“It’s one of my favorite games, actually, taking out the loved ones of my opponents.  I love the broken look they get in their eyes when the life bleeds out of the mortals.  The expression on their face when I toss them the head of their lover, if the lover was Immortal, is just as sweet.  I can only imagine your expression when you found out I took Alvarez.”

Jensen felt ill at the pleasure he saw in the broader man’s face as he thought about past fights.  He had to take this monster down tonight, even if it cost him everything.

::Jensen, Aisha and I are inposition,:: Clay informed him.  ::Don’t let his words get to you.  If you fight angry you are more likely to make mistakes.  He’s counting on that.::

Jensen didn’t react to Clay’s words.  He’d heard his message, but didn’t want to let Wade know that his teammates were planning something.  Immortals had no special way to figure out the locations of mortals like they could their own kind.  The Losers were pros at sneaking around silently so Wade would not know their positions until they revealed themselves.

“I changed the plan this time,” Wade continued, unaware of the other Losers moving around above them.  “This piece of trash dared to kill me twice so I returned the favor.  I’ll kill the one he loves in front of him and then take his head myself.”

“Enough of this,” Jensen interrupted, disgusted.  “Let’s get the challenge over with.”

“Alright,” Wade agreed as they began to walk towards each other.

Jensen watched Wade’s muscles where he could see their shape through the other Immortal’s t-shirt and was easily able to block the swing intended to catch his right shoulder.  Wade pulled his blade back and up before bringing it down in a diagonal slash aimed at the left side of his head.  Ducking down to the left kept Wade’s sword from connecting with any part of Jensen’s body and gave him the chance to attack. 

Wade’s move left him unbalanced and his leg unprotected.  From his crouch, Jensen sliced at the thigh.  Wade was able to move back enough that it wasn’t as deep a slit as Jensen wanted, but he still drew blood.

From somewhere behind him, Jensen could hear Pooch cheering about first blood.  If the situation hadn’t been as serious as it was, Jensen would have been celebrating as well.

Wade snarled and struck out with his blade, catching Jensen on the right hip.  It wasn’t any deeper than a paper cut, but it hurt as much as a paper cut would. 

Jensen stepped back a few paces and assessed the situation.  Wade and he were pretty evenly matched and had similar fighting styles.  In the back of his mind Jensen wished he had decided to use his battle axe instead.  He always did better with the axe when up against an opponent good with the long sword.  Unfortunately, Wade’s records had him using four different weapons and for Jensen the long sword was the weapon he could use the best against all of them.

“Why don’t you give up now and make this easier on the both of us?” Wade asked in a bored tone of voice.  “I don’t feel like taking all night just to kill someone with your inferior skill level.”

“I don’t think so,” Jensen replied.  Jensen noticed that Wade was slowly moving to his left and would soon be able to see the back stairs where Clay was quietly descending.  Jensen couldn’t let that happen.  “Did Batman ever give up against the Joker? No.  Did Superman surrender to Lex Luthor? No.  What makes you think I would surrender to you?

“The thing is, kid.  You aren’t Batman or Superman,” Wade scoffed.  “If you weren’t going to die tonight I’d suggest you see a psychologist for those delusions.”

Jensen swung at the left side of Wade’s head.  The Immortal blocked his attack and pushed it back.  He responded by aiming his own weapon at Jensen’s left side, just above the hip bone.  Blocking, Jensen shoved the blade to the side before striking at Wade’s neck. 

Wade just managed to get his sword up to block the attack before using his own blade to bind Jensen’s sword down in front of him.  With a speed that Jensen wouldn’t have associated with the more muscular man, Wade brought his blade up and struck the hacker in the right shoulder, before knocking the sword out of his hand.

The blow wasn’t as deep as it could have been since Wade wasn’t able to get much power behind it.  The problem was that it bit into his shoulder at just the right angle to cut through part of the muscle.  Jensen had just lost the ability to extend his arm forward without causing more damage to the muscle.  His Quickening would heal it, but he needed to give it time.  When he lost his grip on his sword, Jensen knew he was in trouble.

Seeing his opportunity Wade lunged at Jensen’s unprotected torso.  In the background Jensen heard Pooch shout a warning, but Jensen hadalready anticipated Wade’s attack. 

He dropped to the side and swept his foot out as Wade moved by him.  The sweep of his leg caused Wade to trip and fall to the floor.  The taller Immortal had to roll to keep from gaining further injury on his own sword.  The roll carried Wade far enough away from Jensen that the hacker was able to pick up his sword in his left hand. 

As Jensen straightened Wade came at him with a slice to his back.  Ducking his left shoulder down, Jensen twisted his arm up and back in order to catch Wade’s attack with the flat of his blade.  The minute he felt the two metals meet he pulled his sword up and over his shoulder forcing Wade’s weapon to move ahead of it.  As soon as both were in front of him, Jensen shoved Wade’s sword away from him and stepped back.

“Impressive recovery, but it won’t help you.”   Wade stepped back as well.  “Do you really think you can fight me using your left arm?”

“I learned a long time ago how to fight equally well with both arms.  It gives me an advantage.”

Wade snorted at that.  “The fact that you felt the need to train your weaker arm shows your limitations.  A real fighter doesn’t need to worry about being able to use his off arm to fight with.  He can finish an opponent off with his dominant hand.”

“Ambidexterity is about flexibility, not making up for a flaw.  It could be a matter of survival to be able to use both hands for any task.  What would you do if it was raining, you slipped, fell, and broke your right arm?  Knowing how to fight with your left would come in handy, no pun intended, in that moment.”

“I wouldn’t fall.  Even if I did, I have ways to keep my opponent from winning.  Enough of this stupid babbling.”

At that Wade sliced at Jensen’s right thigh.  Jensen reacted instinctively and blocked the blow, before binding Wade’s blade in an arc from the right to his left. 

Once both blades were on Jensen’s left it gave him a clear shot at Wade.  He stepped into the space between them and hit Wade in the nose with a straight punch.  The pain that blossomed in Jensen’s right shoulder didn’t really surprise him.  He knew throwing that punch would further damage the slowly healing cut in his muscles, but he had been in the perfect set up for the move.

As Wade stumbled back Jensen saw an opening and stuck at Wade’s unprotected arm.  The gash that formed on the other Immortal’s left was deep, but not serious enough to give Jensen the advantage he needed to win the fight.

Jensen stepped back a few feet to catch his breath.  The shallow laceration to his hip hurt and the gash in his shoulder was still bleeding.  Jensen could tell he was starting to wear down.  Wade had anticipated the challenge and had obviously been training hard for the fight in the weeks before.  Jensen had a full workout routine, but hadn’t been able to put in as much weapons practice as he liked without risking his cover.  The lack of practice might very well get him killed.  His only hope was to try to wear Wade out first.

Wade wiped off some of the blood that was gushing out of his nose. “You broke my nose you little bastard,” Wade snarled.  “I ought to put you down like the mongrel you are!”

“Wow.  _That_ was original,” Jensen snarked.  “It’s not like that line hasn’t been used before in thousands of books and movies.”

Spitting out blood, Wade reached behind his back.  Pulling out a gun he aimed it at the hacker.  Before he had the chance to pull the trigger another gun fired.  The bullet struck the barrel of Wade’s gun, deforming it.  With a growl Wade tossed the useless weapon aside.

“Don’t your pets know not to interfere?” Wade eyed the areas the bullet could have been fired from.

“First off, nice shot Aisha!” Jensen exclaimed.

“Just make sure you don’t lose,” she called back down to him.

“Secondly, they know not to interfere beyond making sure you don’t cheat.  Pulling a gun out during the course of a challenge is cheating, Wade.” Jensen waved a finger at him in a scolding manner.

“It’s the new world.  The old rules were made before firearms were invented.”

“But archery was the firearms equivalent and they aren’t allowed either.  As long as you don’t cheat, they won’t influence our fight any further.”

As he was talking, Jensen had been edging forward.  He needed to keep Wade too busy to notice that Clay had freed Cougar.  The pair was standing at the far end of the cell block watching them fight. 

As soon as Jensen was in range he struck out with his sword, feinted a strike to the upper torso before arcing down towards Wade’s legs.  Wade managed to block it so Jensen pulled back and aimed a real blow for his chest.  Catching the blow with his sword, Wade pushed the steel back before thrusting at Jensen’s chest.

Sidestepping Wade’s attack Jensen swiped at his opponent’s unprotected back.  Wade managed to anticipate the move and brought his sword up to block before pulling both weapons to the side. 

Jensen was unable to free his blade from Wade’s and as soon as the opening presented itself Wade shoved Jensen backwards before grabbing onto his shirt with his left hand.  Swinging Jensen to the side, the broader man slammed him into the bars of one of the cells.  Before Jensen could even pull in a breath Wade yanked him forward and shoved him back into the metal bars even harder.  Jensen’s head whipped back and hit the bars hard enough that his vision grayed out.

A searing pain to his abdominal area sharpened Jensen’s focus.  He looked down to see Wade’s long sword sticking most of the way into his stomach.  Jensen screamed out as Wade twisted the blade around as he pulled it back out.

Dimly Jensen could hear Cougar and Pooch shouting something to him, but he ignored them to focus on Wade.  The man wore an expression of triumph, as if he believed that Jensen had no more fight left in him. 

Kicking out, Jensen caught Wade in the crotch with the side of his foot.  Instead of letting go like Jensen hoped, Wade pulled him off the bars and threw him across the hallway.

Jensen went tumbling, unable to control his fall.  He lost his blade on the way down and it went sliding ahead of him.  A sharp pain in his ankle informed Jensen that he had broken it when he hit the concrete.

Laughing, Wade started to approach Jensen.

“I always knew you‘d end up at my feet.  So much for being ambidextrous,” Wade mocked.

“Déjelo ** ~~,~~** ” Jensen heard Cougar shout.  The anger in his tone was expected, but the level of fear laced in with that anger startled Jensen.

“I’ll deal with you soon enough Alvarez.  Kindly shut up while I kill your boyfriend here.  These interruptions are getting irritating,” Wade shouted at Cougar over his shoulder.

The Immortal strode forward as Jensen scrambled back.  The hacker could see his long sword a little further behind him and tried to reach it before Wade made it over to him.  If he couldn’t get to it he was going to die.

As he stretched to reach his blade, Jensen saw Wade move in the corner of his eye.  He tried to push himself further away from the other Immortal, but he wasn’t able to move far enough back.  Wade’s blade cut into him from his upper left chest to his right hip.  All Jensen could do was gasp in pain.

Another two feet were accomplished before Wade halted Jensen’s progress.  He kicked Jensen in the chest, knocking him flat on his back.  Wade positioned his foot and then pressed down on the section of stomach where the sword had gone through him earlier.

“You’ve been an annoyance for over five hundred years.  It’s nice to know that I can rid the world of your idiocy.  I’ll hunt down the rest of the Losers afterward.  You know, Alvarez may just be the easiest head I have ever taken.”  Wade laughed, then, standing over Jensen.

Jensen couldn’t speak through the pain.  All he could do was fight to stay conscious as sparks warred with the blackness tingeing the edges of his vision.

Lifting up his sword, Wade thrust it into Jensen’s right shoulder, pinning him.  The hacker screamed in pain.  He could barely focus as the heavier man continued speaking.

“You kind of look like one of those bugs displayed in glass cases.  I should leave your body in one of the cells for the next tour group to find in the morning.  What do you think?” Wade asked in a falsely pleasant voice.  As Wade leaned in to hear Jensen’s last words, the hacker stretched his left arm as far back as he could. 

By a miracle he was able to reach the hilt of his sword.  Jensen grasped it and slashed at Wade’s unprotected neck.  His sword bit deep into the flesh and Wade fell forward grasping his neck in both hands.

Jensen pushed him off and got to his knees.  Wade glared balefully up at him from where he crouched.  As often happened in challenges, the fortunes of the fighters changed in a second of luck.

Raising his sword above him with both hands Jensen spoke the traditional words.

“There can be only one.”

Putting all his strength behind the swing, Jensen brought his sword down onto Wade’s neck, severing his head from shoulders.

Jensen sat down on the ground and waited to collect the Quickening.  The white mist-like energy began to rise from Wade’s body.  Within moments lightning hit Jensen full in the chest and he cried out at the sensation.  The small part of him not completely focused on the Quickening wondered how the people running Alcatraz were going to explain the fried electronics and blown out glass. 

It took both an eternity and no time at all for the Quickening to be exchanged.  As the last bits completed their journey, Jensen fell forward into unconsciousness.

~~~~~~~~~~~

 **Cougar**

Cougar raced over to where Jensen lay unmoving.  None of the Losers had expected Jensen’s challenge to be as close in skill as it had been and Clay had needed to hold Cougar back to keep him from interfering.  His mind knew that the fight was between the pair, but his instinct was to shoot the man dead. 

Cougar’s heart had always made him step in to help Jensen.  Even knowing that he could heal the wounds he’d received, Cougar still wanted to pull out a first aid kit and sew up the lacerations. 

Watching Jensen fight to save him, Cougar made up his mind.  If they both survived the night, he’d take hold of the hacker and never let him go.  Ironically enough, it had been Wade’s comments that gave Cougar the courage to go for what he wanted.  Theman had been so sure of his assessment of their relationship that hehad even taunted Jensen with it during the fight.

When Jensen had been run through by Wade, Cougar cried out in horror.  At that point he hadfirmly believed he’d watch the hacker die that night.  Healing or no, there was no way for him to regain the advantage after a wound like that.  It had only gotten worse as the bastard pinned Jensen’s shoulder with his sword.  Clay had been forced to pull Cougar’s arms behind him to keep the sniper from killing Wade.  Both men had slumped in relief when Jensen had managed to get a hold of his blade and giveWade a severe neck wound.  It was what happened next that froze both of them.

Cougar had sensed something powerful rising when Jensen beheaded Wade and figured that it had to do with the electrical storms that Jensen admitted were associated with the challenges.  It took the sniper a minute to remember that they were called Quickenings. 

When the first arc of electricity hit Jensen, Cougar was pulled back by Clay.  He knew that Clay didn’t want either of them to accidentally get hit.  It broke his heart to hear Jensen scream as he appeared to be electrocuted by a corpse, but it was all over in a couple minutes.

Jensen collapsed to the ground as Cougar ran to him.  Even from a distance he could tell the hacker was unconscious.  He was breathing, though, and Cougar let out a breathof his own in relief.

Once the sniper was seated he pulled Jensen’s head into his lap.  He had no intention of moving until the other man was awake. 

The other three seemed to get his unspoken decision and worked around him to clean up some of the mess.  The body was wrapped in atarp and set aside.  Clay muttered something about burning it once they were off the island.  The blood was wiped up and any debris that they’d caused was picked up.  Cougar mentioned the shed so Pooch went to check that as well. 

Despite the amount of cleaning to be done, the three worked efficiently and were soon ready to take their things back to the boat.  There was no telling if someone noticed the light show and notified the authorities.  The sooner they were off the island the safer they would be.

As Clay and Pooch carried Wade’s corpse to the boat Jensen began to wake up.  Aisha noticed and Cougar watched out of the corner of his eye as she followed the others to give the pair some privacy. 

Jensen slowly opened his eyes; tensing before he recognized who was leaning over him.

“Cougar?” Cougar nodded at that so Jensen continued.  “I am so sorry.  I never meant for this to happen.  I didn’t want you to find out this way.  You have to believe me.”

Jensen looked like he was going to go on apologizing for something that Cougar truly didn’t fault him for so he stopped the flow of words the most effective way he knew.  He leaned down and kissed Jensen.

“Cougs?”  Jensen looked up at him, expression a mix of shock and happiness.

“Está bien” Cougar assured the hacker. “No te echo la culpa.”

Jensen rolled off of Cougar’s lap.  The sniper stood up before helping him to his feet.  He may have won and absorbed the Quickening, but it was obvious that Jensen was still healing and exhausted from the battle.

“I take it we’ll have a lot to discuss when we get out of here?  The least of which being what to expect now that you havejoined our super secret fight club.”

Cougar nodded in reply causing Jensen’s entire face to light up.

 Reaching over, Cougar pulled Jensen’s left arm over his shoulder and helped him back to the boat.  He allowed a small grin as Jensen started rambling enthusiastically about all the people he was going to take Cougar to meet as soon as they had trained for a while.  Spending eternity with the passionate man beside him was more than he ever dreamed possible.

~~~~~~~~~~~

 **Epilogue**

 **Richie Ryan**

 **2018 Seacouver, Washington**

Richie kept an eye on the door to Joe’s bar in anticipation.  He had no idea the reason why Methos hadgathered his friends together, but it shouldbe entertaining at least.  All he would admit to was having invited a couple ofpeople to visit, but one of the skills Richie had kept in practice after he became Immortal was to be able to read people.  Studying Methos for a few minutes had told the redhead that the old man was very smug about the mystery guests.

Richie had been traveling around the world with Amanda for three years and had been in Wales when he decided to take a break.  The blond Immortal had been teaching Richie how to become more skilled at stealing.  Mac wasn’t happy about the situation, but these were skills he’d found useful earlier in life and who was to say what knowledge he might need later on. 

Richie’s only stipulation to the lessons was that after a few days they’d re-break in and return what they stole.  Amanda complained, but Richie pointed out that she could always go back in a year or two and reacquire the items.  The second round was usually more challenging anyway since security would be heightened. 

Amanda and Richie had been taking and returning valuable items all over the UK.  The pair had gotten a good laugh at various European newspapers’ confusion about the thefts.  The current popular theory was that the thefts were part of an initiation into some secret club.

Deciding that it was a good time to relax and let the media coverage of their thefts blow over, Richie caught the next flight to the States.  He’d been delighted to realize that Methos was staying near Joe’s bar.  Richie had grown to really enjoy Methos’ sense of humor and oftentried to get him to talk about past adventures.  The ancient Immortal usually wouldn’t, buthe never seemed to tire of finding new ways to distract Richie.  It had become a game between them. 

When he heard that Methos had invited guests he jumped at the chance to meet them.  It was on a Tuesday night so Joe could shut the bar down for a private party and not lose much business. 

Methos had invited Connor, Amanda and Duncan as well.  Amanda backed out, having accepted a job right before hearing about the get-together.  Connor had a new student who’d just had his first death and didn’t want to overwhelm the young man with so many Immortals at once.  Richie could tell Duncan wasn’t exactly happy about the gathering.  He hadhad no idea that Methos and Connor knew each other, let alone well enough for Methos to invite him to a party.  Richie thought it extended from Duncan’s difficulty in dealing with the knowledge that the oldest Immortal had once been Death. 

Over the years of knowing him, Richie had learned that his old teacher tended to believe what women told him even if a friend contradicted it.  For example, Cassandra hadn’t wanted to accept that Methos could have changed from the evil man she remembered.   Between Duncan MacLeod’s automatic belief in her because of her gender and her own Quickening enhanced Voice Mac wouldn’t accept it either, despite having known Methos for a much longer time.

 _The blame isn’t entirely on Cassandra and Mac_ , Richie admitted to himself.  _If the Old Man didn’t like his mysterious nature so much and hold back information, others would more often give him the benefit of doubt in these situations_.

Richie was willing to believe in him.  He had started out as a street wise thief until Duncan intervened.  He could have easily been quite jaded and cynical by the time he had his first death if he hadn’t met Mac.  The Immortal Darius had changed as well, thanks to a Light Quickening that turned the violent warlord into a pacifist.  Methos might not have had a Light Quickening like Darius received, but it said more about his character that he realized what he had become and changed on his own.  

It helped Richie make his decision about the Old Man when he learned that Connor liked Methos.  Richie had found Connor to be as admirable as his cousin and if Connor could accept Methos and what he had done, then Richie could as well. 

Duncan had claimed to have another engagement that he needed to be at and had declined tocome to the bar.  Richie wasn’t sure if that was because he really did have plans and the party was last minute or because he didn’t want to meet any more of Methos’ friends.

 _It would do Mac good to loosen up and meet people_ , Richie thought.  _He hasn’t been as easy going since Tessa was murdered.  I miss you as well, Tessa.  You taught me a lot in the small amount of time I knew you._

At the thought of her, Richie’s good mood was starting to fall.  The feeling of several Immortals near-by pulled his attention back outward.  From the stiffening of Methos, Richie knew he wasn’t the only one who hadpicked up on it.  The one who didn’t react was Joe, who couldn’t sense Immortals.  Richie assumed that this must be the people Methos was waiting for.  If it wasn’t, one of them might get challenged and that would ruin the night.  The thing that made Richie nervous was that one of the Quickenings felt far older than the other.  It was really close to how Cassandra’s and Methos’ felt. 

Richie’s eyes were glued on the door as the two Immortals walked in.  He couldn’t keep his jaw from dropping.  The taller man looked like he could have stepped off a college campus.  The dirty blonde wore orange tinted glasses and jeans.  His t-shirt had the image of a Mario 1up mushroom and read “I Don’t Need To ‘Get A Life’ I Have Lots Of Lives”.  The man behind him was quite the contrast.  Hispanic with a gray t-shirt, dark jeans, a jean jacket missing its sleeves, and a cowboy hat, the man was as different to the goateed man he accompanied as he could be without putting on a tuxedo.

What stunned Richie was that he recognized the pair.  Their faces had been all over the news recently.  They were part of that army group, nicknamed the Losers, that had been left for dead in Bolivia after being set up to take the fall for the murder of twenty-five children. 

It’d taken the group and a woman called Aisha al-Fadhil four years to reveal the true person behind those murders as well as hundreds of other incidents, including the bomb that nearly took out the Port of LA.  Max, the man responsible, was a former CIA spook who stood to make billions off of the war he was trying to engineer.  He claimed it was to ensure the US’s survival in the new millennium, but the government hadcondemned his actions. 

From what he remembered one member of the group had turned traitor early on in the course of their fight, nearly killing them in the process.  They’d recovered and gone after Max harder than ever.

For their bravery and work uncovering Max, the Losers were each awarded the Medal of Honor as well as a public apology from the President.  They were exempted from prosecution forany laws they had broken in the process of exposing the conspiracy.  After it was over, all but the leader, Franklin Clay, received an honorable discharge.

Clay remained in the Army and went on to teach at West Point after receiving a severe leg injury in the last battle against Max.  It left him with a permanent limp, but he had no problem training others.  Aisha al-Fadhil had gone on to work for Women’s Rights in the Mideast.  Linwood Porteous, also called Pooch, had gone home to help raise his son.  He’d ended up starting his own business designing and customizing cars.  It had quickly become very popular and successful, especially with the Hollywood crowd and Richie had been thinking of ordering one of Pooch’s cars for himself. 

The two that stood in front of him had all but disappeared from the media.  The other three would only smile and say they had their own business to attend to.  Considering the buzz he felt from them both, Richie had a good idea why they hadvanished.

The cowboy, Carlos Alvarez, if Richie remembered correctly, was the one he thought had to be the really old Immortal.  The man exuded sex appeal and danger at the same time.  The blonde had to be Jacob Jensen, the tech of the Losers who had probably had his first death while fighting against Max.

“Well, if it isn’t the brat,” Methos called out.  “I see your sense of humor hasn’t improved any.  Also, you certainly seem to have forgotten my lessons on staying out of the public eye.  A challenge at Alcatraz Island and then taking down a powerful man, what were you thinking?  I’ve failed as a teacher.”  Methos might have been able to pull off the disappointment if his eyes didn’t betray his merriment.

To Richie’s shock, it was Jensen that waved to Methos and replied.

“Was unavoidable, Old Man.  I wasn’t going to abandon my team and Max had to be taken down.  It’s not like anyone realized that we were Immortal.  We had the hospital records to prove it.  Handy trick you taught me.  It’s kind of like having a super power.”

“Both of you are Immortal?” Joe inquired.

“Yep.  Been one for a while.  Not as long as the Old Man over here and yes, I do know that the two of you know his secret.  Cougar, here, is the baby in the room.  Only seven years an Immortal.”  The man, Jensen, laughed at the low growl that came from Cougar.

Richie couldn’t believe Cougar was a younger Immortal than him.  If he radiated that much danger now, then Richie wondered what he would seem like at one hundred years.

“Cougar, these are friends.  The thin one back there is Methuselah, also known as Methos.  Remember, he was my second first teacher.  And from Methos’ descriptions the redhead is Richie Ryan and the barkeep is Joe Dawson, a Watcher.”

“Are you telling everyone about us?” Joe asked Methos, annoyed.  Richie wondered the same thing.

“Nope.”  It was Jensen that replied.  “I’ve known about you guys for a long time and Methos was kind enough to warn me about who we might meet.   Because of your group’s non-interference policy, a long time ago I was left to drown perpetually in a lake for weeks while my Watcher just sat there.”  Jensen’s tone grew dark at that last comment.  Cougar reached out and briefly squeezed his hand.  With a shake of his head, Jensen continued in a much more cheerful voice.  “After this, we’re heading out to hang with Connor for a while.  His student needs a bit of tougheningupto help him survive.”

Richie was curious at what could have caused that situation for the hacker, but didn’t push.  He could ask Joe later.  Besides, he knew all about having dark memories.

As the night wore on, Richie observed the pair as they all hung out.  Cougar soon relaxed and occasionally added a few words to their conversations.  Jensen assured them that he was being positively verbose in comparison to how he normally was.  It was later explained that Jensen had stayed in the military only after discovering Cougar was aPre-Immortal as well as how Cougar hadreceived his first death.  Richie had heard about William Gray from Mac and from what he knew, it was a good thing that the Immortal was dead.

The one thing that would stick out in Richie’s memory for a long time was how the pair acted together.  They moved as if they were one unit, something that could be explained by being part of the same special operations unit.  What couldn’t be explained were the little touches and looks that went on between them.  It reminded Richie of how Tessa and Mac had acted when they were together, minus the PDAs. 

Richie had never seen another couple as in love as they were.  Not even Tessa and Mac had been that close, because of the fact that they knew she would most likely die well before him. 

As the years went by there were rumors of a pair of Immortals that no one seemed to be able to track.  The Immortals were said to be lovers, but nothing was concrete.  Not even the Watchers knew for sure. 

Smiling whenever he heard another Immortal repeat the tales, Richie would think back to the two he had met for the first time at Joe’s bar.  If Methos was with Richie, they would have to fight hard not to start laughing and confuse the other Immortal.

Richie found out it amused the hell out of Jensen.   Whenever he ran into them, Richie and Jensen always shared the weirdest incarnation of the legend the pair seemed to be forming while Cougar watched them both with a small, contented smile.

 **END**

**Author's Note:**

> Spanish Translations:
> 
> Estuviste con el hombre en la iglesia. = You are with the man in the church.
> 
> Confíe en lo que te diga y en lo que te enseñe. = Trust in what he tells you and what he teaches you.
> 
> Tiene mucha sabiduría a pesar de su comportamiento. = He carries much wisdom despite his behavior.
> 
> Comprenderás cuando llegue el tiempo. Cuide de él y ámelo. = You'll understand when the time comes. Take care of him and love him.
> 
> Idiota obstinado. = Stubborn idiot.
> 
> No te atrevas a morir. No podría agauntarlo. = Don't you dare die. I wouldn't be able to stand it.
> 
> Cualquier cosa. = Anything.
> 
> Prometo. = I promise.
> 
> Madre de Dios. = Mother of God
> 
> Mi amigo. = My friend.
> 
> Está bien. = It's alright.
> 
> Mierda. Esto no puede estar sucediendo. = Shit. This can't be happening.
> 
> Mi corazón, no vengas para mí. = My heart, don't come for me.
> 
> Déjelo. = Leave him alone.
> 
> Está bien. = It's alright
> 
> No te echo la culpa. = I don't blame you


End file.
